07 November 2008
“On-Call” Scientists Project Promotes, Protects Human Rights
Web-based tool links human rights groups with scientific experts
Washington — A new project unveiled by the Science and Human Rights Program (SHRP) aims to create an international network of “on-call” scientists to whom human rights organizations can turn for free consultations on scientific questions.
Founded in 1977, SHRP works with scientists to promote and protect human rights around the world, according to its mission statement. It is part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
The “on-call” scientists project began in October 2008.
Previous connections between scientists and human rights organizations requiring scientific capability were made informally, often through word of mouth, according to Mona Younis, director of SHRP.
The new “on-call” scientists Web site allows scientists to create a profile describing their expertise. AAAS will use these profiles to match scientists with the particular needs of human rights organizations.
Scientists of all disciplines — behavioral, life, physical and social scientists, as well as engineers, technicians, medical and public health professionals — can provide advice regarding scientific method, data analyses and data interpretation, according to AAAS.
“The partnerships that we hope to form are strictly between human rights organizations and nongovernmental organizations, national human rights institutions and relevant U.N. agencies and offices. We do not partner with governments or government agencies,” Jessica Wyndham, a project director at SHRP, told America.gov. “It is our view that these [nonprofit] organizations lack the resources and access to scientific expertise that governments enjoy, and it is that gap that we hope to fill.”
ROLE OF SCIENCE IN HUMAN RIGHTS
At a panel discussion unveiling the program, representatives of three human rights organizations discussed how epidemiology, forensics and geography are among the many scientific disciplines critical to documenting human rights abuses.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), a nongovernmental organization, frequently uses physicians with molecular biology and forensic experience to expose human rights abuses, such as those revealed through the investigation of mass graves in Bosnia.
“We’re very excited about cooperating with this program,” said PHR Deputy Director Susannah Sirkin.
Geographers are crucial to Amnesty International’s Eyes on Darfur project, in which scientists analyzed commercial satellite images to determine the extent of damage to areas of Darfur, Sudan. According to Ariela Blätter, director of the Crisis Prevention and Response Center, using satellite images was a “huge advance” and helped raise public awareness about the systemic human rights abuses occurring in the region.
Eyes on Darfur also allows people around the world to continually monitor, by the use of satellite imagery, 12 intact but vulnerable villages. There have been few or no attacks on these villages, Blätter said.
A similar program used analysis of satellite images to document the Zimbabwean government's program of forced evictions and demolitions in June 2005. The program, Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order), affected 700,000 people, according to Amnesty International.
GROUP ALSO HELPS U.S. ADDRESS POTENTIAL ABUSES
Scientists also provide crucial expertise investigating potential human rights abuses in the United States.
During arrest, incarceration and transfer, law enforcement personnel withhold personal effects, including medications, from prisoners. This practice poses risks to prisoners with hypertension, whose blood pressure might rise until treatment is resumed, increasing their risk of stroke. In prisoners with HIV/AIDS, temporarily ceasing anti-retroviral therapy poses a more serious threat because it increases the likelihood that the virus will develop resistance to the medication, making the medication less effective when it is resumed.
Philip Fornaci is the director of the D.C. Prisoners’ Project, which advocates the humane treatment of prisoners from Washington. He had anecdotal evidence that prisoners were denied access to medications, a constitutional violation if there is a “substantial risk of serious harm.” But Fornaci needed a systematic analysis of widespread abuse to substantiate his claim of prisoner abuse.
Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, led a team of scientists that interviewed prisoners, documented cases where medication was withheld, and analyzed the data, which was presented at a D.C. City Council hearing on prisoners’ rights.
The study’s findings led the council to change health care providers in local jails, and the provision of health care has improved, Fornaci told America.gov. “The difference is like night and day,” he said.
For more information on the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program’s ”On-Call” scientists program, see its Web site.
For more information on Amnesty International’s Eyes on Darfur project, see the project’s Web site.
For the results of the D.C. Prisoners’ Project’s study, see “From the Inside Out: Talking to Incarcerated Women About Health Care — A Study of Incarcerated Women in D.C. Jail Facilities“ (PDF, 23 pages) on the Washington Lawyers Committee Web site.
