AAAS: Use Science to Boost Human Rights

After launching some new initiatives using scientific technology and expertise in the service of human rights, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is stepping up its efforts in the area by recruiting individual scientists and health care workers, as well as professional or scientific organizations, to join its efforts.

On June 24, the AAAS hosted a webcast highlighting the organization's human rights efforts and urged individuals and science-related organizations to join the initiatives. Among these activities are an effort to use satellite and other geographic imaging technology to monitor and document human rights violations in remote or difficult-to-reach regions, a coalition bringing together scientific organizations to work on human rights issues, and a program that allows individuals to volunteer their expertise to human rights organizations.

“At no previous time have the needs and possibilities been as great,” said Mona Younis, PhD, director of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program.

Younis explained that the AAAS has long been involved in human rights work, with pioneering efforts in the 1980s to use forensic science to identify victims in mass graves. Since then, it has been involved in numerous efforts to translate the latest technologies and scientific knowledge into useful tools for humanitarian organizations. While such work continues, the organization sees a growing demand from human rights organizations and others for tools to measure, document, and report human rights violations, said AAAS President and Nobel Laurate Peter Agre, MD.

The Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights project (http://shr.aaas.org/geotech/) is developing techniques and software to allow human rights organization to use satellite imaging and other technologies to monitor, identify, and document human rights violations from afar, even when they are unable to access a location because of logistics or hostile forces. The effort was launched by the AAAS as a pilot program in 2006 with a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

It quickly proved how powerful these technologies could be. That same year, the program provided satellite image evidence (http://shr.aaas.org/geotech/Zimbabwe/zimbabwe.shtml) that a settlement in Zimbabwe called Porta Farm that once had been home to as many as 10 000 residents had been destroyed during a 2005 campaign by the government of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president. The evidence was used in a report by the international human rights organization Amnesty International and by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to prove human rights violations (Zimbabwe: Shattered Lives—The Case of Porta Farm, available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR46/004/2006). In May 2009, the program analyzed satellite images from Sri Lanka where heavy civilian casualties were being reported as the government battled Tamil Tiger rebels. The government barred access to the sites by humanitarian groups and denied using heavy artillery in civilian areas; however, the satellite photos show areas where entire settlements had been demolished or craters that suggested shelling had occurred (http://shr.aaas.org/geotech/srilanka/srilanka.shtml).

Ariela Blätter, LLB, LLM, a human rights lawyer and senior director of the international programs of Amnesty International USA, said that humanitarian organizations are using technologies to extend their reach into remote regions, to expand their capacity to monitor massive conflicts, and to combat government secrecy. They also are using technology to recruit individuals to take action to stop human rights violations. For example, Amnesty International's “Eyes on Darfur” Web site lets individuals view evidence of atrocities in Darfur, including high-resolution satellite images showing the destruction of villages. It also allows those viewing these images to electronically petition governments to stop the abuse.

With additional funding from the MacArthur Foundation, the Oak Foundation, and the Open Society Institute, the AAAS geospatial initiative is working to identify technologies and develop software that may be useful to human rights organizations and to provide the training necessary to help these groups use such tools. Human rights organizations may work in undeveloped regions of the world where harsh conditions may be hard on equipment, so any equipment must be usable under such conditions, explained Lars Bromley, MA, director of the geospatial technologies program. Additionally, human rights groups and their local sources face threats from abusive regimes, and the technology they use must not make them more vulnerable. For example, he explained that the use of satellite telephones in a remote region may be tracked by an abusive government.

“People who give them information are putting their lives at risk,” he explained.

Bromley and his colleagues are investigating remote systems and exploring the use of existing services for human rights purposes. For example, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a satellite-based fire detection system that was able to detect a spike in fires in Darfur as villages were burned at the height of the genocide, Bromley said. He and his coworkers are developing ways to use this technology throughout the world as a real-time system for alerting human rights organizations to emerging conflicts, which might allow prevention of some atrocities.

Increasingly, deploying scientific technology and skills in the service of human rights requires interdisciplinary efforts, Agre noted, explaining why the AAAS is interested in tapping a wider array of individuals with expertise in a variety of fields.

To this end, the AAAS launched its On-call Scientists program in October 2008 to match researchers willing to serve as volunteers with human rights organizations in need of such expertise. In addition to recruiting engineers and scientists in such fields as the behavioral, life, physical, and social sciences, the group is seeking out volunteer health care workers. So far, the organization has recruited 250 such individuals in 25 countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, and Japan, said Younis. It is also accepting requests from human rights organizations for such skilled volunteer help.

The On-call Scientists program is arranging for scientists to do both onsite and remote work for humanitarian organizations. The program's first match, Younis said, was between volunteer Anne M. Alexander, PhD, an economist and director of international programs at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, a human rights organization focusing on violations and inequities in the United States. Alexander assisted the group by producing a cost-benefit analysis of providing health care to individuals in Montana.

In January, the AAAS launched the Science and Human Rights Coalition, a network of membership organizations in scientific fields, to work together on human rights problems. Currently, 39 organizations have joined this network, including the American Public Health Association, the American Physical Society, and the Association of American Geographers. The group has formed several working groups to address such issues as scientists under threat, science ethics, and how to educate scientists about human rights concerns.

“Working together, it is conceivable we not only might make notable contributions to human rights, but someday scientists may make early warning and prevention of human rights atrocities possible,” Agre said.