AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

The Right to Travel

About the Clearinghouse

La introducción está disponible en español aquí.

Since 1998, the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program has been involved in researching and advocating for scientists' right to travel between Cuba and the United States. For more than four decades AAAS has supported the right of scientists, researchers and academicians to exchange ideas and participate in scientific activities on a worldwide basis. Scientists in this context include physical, natural and social scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and the medical community. Freedom of movement is particularly important to scientists. The free exchange of ideas is one of the most basic values of the scientific enterprise, and the freedom to travel is one of the most important ways of furthering that exchange.

In 1997, Science and Human Rights Program staff traveled to Cuba to explore the effects of travel restrictions on scientists. Both US and Cuban laws limit the free exercise of travel. In 1998, AAAS published an informational resource, The Right to Travel: the Effect of Travel Restrictions on Scientific Collaboration between American and Cuban Scientists. This publication documents specific violations of the right to travel by both countries.

One of the findings of the research was that US scientists lacked clear, easy to understand information about travel regulations and opportunities for collaboration with Cuban scientists. In 2000, the Science and Human Rights Program, in cooperation with the Latin American and Caribbean Program, established an online resource, The Clearinghouse of Information on Scientific and Academic Travel between Cuba and the US. The website provided the scientific and academic community with clear and useful information about US and Cuba travel policies. The website includes a concise overview of travel regulations with links to the relevant government agencies, notices about selected science related conferences and events, and practical advice on how to negotiate the travel regulations and to maintain or initiate new scientific or academic collaborations between the two countries.

The project received funding from the Christopher Reynolds and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundations.

While the project officially closed in mid-2002, the Science and Human Rights Program will continue to host the Clearinghouse website as it contains a wealth of information about U.S-Cuba scientific collaboration and documents the history of the Right to Travel Project. Readers are encouraged to consult US government sources for the most current travel policies as such policies are periodically altered.

Project Activities

• Providing the scientific and academic community with clear and updated information about US And Cuba travel policies:

Project staff monitored US And Cuban policy in regard to travel and included any new developments in the US and Cuba Travel Policies section of the Clearinghouse website. A major goal of the Clearinghouse was to present information to the scientific community in the most concise and accurate manner possible.

• Monitoring the outcome of visa and license requests for travel to and from Cuba for scientific purposes, and assisting individual scientists whose right to travel to or from Cuba has been denied:

  Right to Travel Project staff monitored visa and license requests and tracked the outcome of visa and license denial requests for scientific purposes of travel to and from Cuba. This was done through regular consultation with the US and Cuban scientists and academics, officials from both countries, and other organizations who also monitor travel policies.

The Clearinghouse served as a central location where information about visa and license request outcomes were gathered and disseminated. Gathering information about the outcome of these requests may be the only way to assure that the government implements its policies in a fair and non-arbitrary manner.

• Mobilizing the scientific community to call for changes to US travel policy and its implementation:

Project staff organized periodic meetings to bring together US Scientists (associations and individuals), representatives from academic institutions, and relevant US Government officials together so that members of the scientific community could express concerns regarding US Travel policy and make recommendations.

For example, in August 2000, AAAS was a signatory to a letter to the President calling for an end to restrictions on travel to Cuba. The letter was printed in a special issue of The Nation to be distributed at the Democratic National Convention. The letter was an initiative of the New York based Fund for Reconciliation and Development.

Letter to President Clinton

• Assisting individual scientists whose right to travel to or from Cuba has been denied:

  Project staff responded to allegations of the misapplication of travel restrictions made by scientists by questioning relevant officials in both countries. When appropriate, staff took action on cases in which the right to travel has been denied by the United States or Cuban government for scientists undertaking legitimate scientific work by intervening on behalf of the individual in question. When additional advocacy efforts were needed for the right of scientists to travel to be recognized, the Clearinghouse called upon its extensive network of scientists to urge authorities to assure that the right of scientists to travel is not infringed.

• Surveying scientific and academic communities:

  The Clearinghouse conducted a survey of AAAS-affiliated scientific societies, US scientists interested in Cuban-US collaborations, and prominent US colleges and universities to determine organizational policy on conducting collaboration with Cuba, the extent of ongoing collaboration, and the level of interest in initiating new exchanges. Survey responses about collaboration were added to the related sites section of the website.

• Fostering scientific collaboration between the US And Cuba:

  The Clearinghouse website informed scientists that it is indeed possible for them to travel to Cuba, provided information on application procedures, assisted scientists interested in engaging in scientific collaborations in negotiating the regulation process.

  The Clearinghouse also contains a page of related sites of colleges and universities, as well as scientific institutions that maintain or are interested in initiating projects with Cuban colleagues.

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