The Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility (CSFR) was established
in 1976 by AAAS. The Committee Charter
is as follows:
The Council recognizes that the CSFR, as a standing committee of the AAAS,
plays a significant as well as potentially controversial role for the Association.
The increasing complexity of the interactions among science, technology, and
the public interest raise new issues and problems concerning the human rights,
freedom of scientific inquiry, and professional responsibilities of scientists
and engineers. The Association affirms at the outset that scientific freedom
is grounded in basic human rights and implies special responsibilities to extend
and disseminate knowledge for the good of humanity.
With these perspectives in mind, and within the resources allocated by the
Board of Directors, the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility is
charged with the following duties on behalf of the Association:
- To formulate and recommend principles and procedures to guide the Association
in a continuing review of issues that affect scientific freedom and scientific
responsibility, and to search for means that will effectively bring these
issues to the attention of both scientists and others.
- To monitor whether the actions and policies of the government of the United
States, the governments of other nations, and of private organizations circumscribe
or restrict the freedom of scientists or their ability to carry out their
responsibilities.
- To collect information on restrictions of scientific freedom and of the
ability of scientists to carry out their responsibilities, and to make such
information available to scientists, scientific societies, and others who
may be interested in taking action to counter these restrictions.
- To encourage and assist the AAAS, its affiliates, and other scientific groups
to develop statements of principles governing professional conduct, and to
establish policies, procedures, and educational activities designed to encourage
scientists to accept their professional responsibilities both with regard
to safeguarding the integrity of science and with regard to the application
of science in the promotion of human rights and general welfare.
- To encourage and assist the AAAS and its affiliates to develop policies
and procedures to protect scientists against infringements of scientific freedom;
to collect information about the procedures of affiliated societies for dealing
with documented allegations of such infringements; to facilitate communication
among the societies with a view to strengthening of these procedures; and,
in exceptional circumstances and within the criteria developed by the Committee,
to conduct an analytic review of cases where the ramifications are deemed
to be especially significant for the scientific community at large.
- To report annually to the Association, through the Council--and, as appropriate,
to other scientific and technological communities and to the general public--the
activities of the Committee and its general assessment of significant developments
during the year that affect scientific freedom and scientific responsibility
and that call for examination, discussion and possible action.
As part of the attempt to fulfill its mandate, the CSFR in 1977 established
a Science and Human Rights Subcommittee, specifically to address issues of human
rights as they occur in relation to all these duties.
Adopted by the Committee for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility February
9, 1996.
Adopted by the AAAS Council on February 16, 1997.
Members
Chair:
Joseph G. Perpich
JG Perpich, LLC
F. Daniel Davis, Ph.D.
National Institutes of Health
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
The New School
Gigi Kwik Gronvall
Center for Biosecurity of UPMC
Susan Hinkins
National Opinion Research Center
Ruth M. Krulfeld
The George Washington University
Robert L. Kuhn
Smith Barney/ Citigroup
Closer To Truth (PBS TV)
Ernest Prentice
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Leonard Rubenstein
Center for Public Health & Human Rights, The Johns Hopkins University
Kenneth F. Schaffner
University of Pittsburgh
Joan E. Sieber
Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics
Valarie Steeves
University of Ottawa
Nicholas H. Steneck
University of Michigan
Committee Staff Officer
Mark S. Frankel
Committee Staff Office for Human Rights
Albert H. Teich, Acting
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