San Francisco, CA - 15 February 2001 -- Flora Brovina, a pediatrician, poet, and human rights activist from Kosovo, will be honored on 17 February for her courage in promoting human rights and in providing shelter and medical care to women and children during the armed conflict in Kosovo. The recognition from the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will come at a reception on 17 February at the Association's Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Each year the program honors a scientist who, through action and example, has promoted human rights, usually at great personal risk.

Dr. Brovina was released from a Serbian jail in November 2000, after serving 18 months of a 12-year sentence. She was accused by the Serb Government of "terrorist acts," apparently for having denounced Serb human rights abuses and for calling for the independence of Kosovo. In March 1999, one month before her arrest, Dr. Brovina had been among the organizers of a demonstration in Pristina of 20,000 ethnic Albanian women, who demanded self-determination for ethnic Albanians and autonomy for Kosovo. Dr. Brovina was released by Vojislav Kostunica, the new president of Yugoslavia. During her imprisonment, she was denied private visits with her family and basic legal rights, according to her attorneys.

WHAT: Reception honoring Flora Brovina for courage in promoting human rights.

WHEN: 5-6:30 p.m., Saturday, 17 February.

WHERE: Hotel Nikko, Bayview Room (25th Floor), 222 Mason St., San Francisco, CA

Founded in 1848, AAAS is the world's largest federation of scientists with more than 138,000 individual members and 273 affiliated societies.