AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

The Right to Travel

In the News

Recent news items on US-Cuba scientific and academic collaboration, the right to travel, and Cuban science and technology.

U.S. Bars Cuban Envoy From University Lecture: The United States has barred a senior Cuban U.N. envoy from delivering a lecture on "Cuba after Castro'' at a Pennsylvania university, saying the speech was unrelated to his diplomatic duties. (Reuters, February 26, 2001)

Brigade to Cuba Gets Lesson in Community Rebuilding: In January, 25 United States citizens will travel abroad to learn about rebuilding a community in a country where reconstruction is a way of life. The group will travel to La Guniera, Cuba, to get hands-on experience in community development and home construction. Fifteen years ago, a group of women from La Guniera decided to spearhead a restoration of their community. In 1995, The United Nations called the city, which lies 40 miles outside of Havana, a global model of a community working together to create a better place to live. (Latino Link, December 4, 2000)

Conservation Initiatives in Cuba: An report from the Society for Conservation Biology. In 1994, SCB passed a resolution establishing the goal of promoting academic and scientific collaboration with Cuba. The objective was to advance conservation of biodiversity and migratory species in eastern North America and the Caribbean. Toward this goal, a group of Cuban organizations and collaborators submitted a bid to host the 2002 SCB annual meeting in Havana. Although the University of Kent was chosen as host, the SCB Board of Governors has decided to explore how SCB can collaborate with Cuban conservation scientists and possibly hold a future annual meeting there. This report includes excerpts from the Cuban proposal, and is intended to introduce SCB members to conservation issues in Cuba and the opportunities that exist for conservation and collaboration. SCB recognizes Cuba's key importance in sustaining the biological diversity of the Caribbean region. (November, 2000)

Cuba Agree on Medical Program: It doesn't happen very often, but the United States and Cuba finally appear to agree on something. U.S. officials said Friday the State Department is not objecting to a Cuban proposal to provide medical training to 500 low-income Americans. (By George Gedda, Associated Press, November 18, 2000)

Deep Secrets: Diving Cuba's Forbidden Depths: Cuba's coastal waters are among the most biologically mysterious on Earth, enticingly near to our shores and yet teeming with unique life forms. But event as science has created new ways to explore unimaginable ocean depths, these waters have remained politically off-limits. Until now... (Discovery Channel)

Cuba Offers Health Care Cooperation: Cuban lawmakers on Saturday outlined an offer to send doctors to poor parts of the United States and to provide free medical training in Cuba annually to 500 Americans, mostly minorities. (by George Gedda, AP, September 16, 2000)

Ofrece Fidel Castro Becas de Medicina para Jovenes de EEUU: El presidente cubano, Fidel Castro, ofrecio 250 becas anuales gratuitas para que jovenes de familias humildes estadounidenses estudien medicina en este pais. (Prensa Latina, September 9, 2000 in Spanish only)

Translation: Cuban President Fidel Castro offered 250 free annual scholarships to disadvantaged American youth to study medicine in Cuba.

Building Bridges: Developing Academic Relations with Cuban Institutions: This article examines these and other issues of concern for faculty and administrators who are interested in developing academic programs on the island.(By Nicholas Robins, NAFSA: Association for International Educators Newsletter, Summer 2000)

Cuba Winning Cancer Race: Economic isolation and a passion for healthcare yield a world lead in genetically engineered medicine (by Julian Borger The Guardian July 27, 2000)

Harvard Reaches Out To Forge Links With Cuba: At a time when U.S—Cuban relations are at best strained and at worst bordering on crisis, a group of Harvard scholars is working to strengthen educational and cultural ties between the two longtime adversaries. The group went on a five-day trip to the island nation last week. (By Doug Gavel, Harvard University Gazette, April 27, 2000)

Cienfuegos Botanical Garden: Harvard's Legacy, Cuba's Challenge, A neo tropical 'Garden of Eden' evolves over centuries: About three-quarters of an hour outside the Cuban city of Cienfuegos, at the "Pepito Tey" sugar complex, is the Cienfuegos Botanical Garden. by Dan Hazen, Harvard University Gazette, April 8, 2000)

Cuba Launches Plan to Reduce Ozone-Depleting Substances: The Cuban government launched a program in Havana to help eliminate ozone-depleting substances with the support of the UN Development Program's Global Environment Facility-GEF. (May 23 2000)

Cuba Conference Highlights Botanical Garden Ties: Cuban botanists and historians avidly exchanged information with their U.S. academic counterparts in a two-day conference organized by Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) and the Cienfuegos Botanical Garden (until 1961, the Harvard Botanical Garden). (by June Carolyn Erlick Special to the Harvard University Gazette, December 2, 1999)

Alternative Nobel Prize Goes to Cuban Group Promoting the Organic Revolution: The Grupo de Agricultura Organica (GAO), the Cuban organic farming association, which has been at the forefront of the country's transition from industrial to organic agriculture, was named as winner of a major international prize-the Right Livelihood Award-commonly known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize.' (October 6, 1999)

Meningitis Drug from Cuba: SmithKline Beecham has signed a deal with Cuba's Finlay Institute giving the Anglo-U.S. drugs group worldwide rights to sell a meningitis B vaccine developed by the Havana-based group. (July 29 1999)

The Universality of Science: Editorial for Science by Irving Lerch, Chair of the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. (March 19 1999)

Adapting For Survival: Opinion by Robert Brambl, Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Minnesota featured in the The Scientist. (April 15 1996) (Registration Required to view article.)

Direct Flights: News article detailing the January 1999 decision to expand direct charter flights to Cuba from New York and Los Angeles. (August 3, 1999)

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(Site Updated 2/27/2001)