The following articles are designed to support the enduring Statement on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. They are to serve as complementary materials that strive to clarify the use and necessity of such a written statement. In addition, these pieces capture the evolution of the Statement’s creation from the bedrock of the initial 1975 report on scientific freedom and responsibility (the Edsall Report) through the AAAS Board’s approval of the Statement, October 12, 2017.
As new knowledge and technologies become available, as new opportunities and challenges present themselves, and as new understandings of science and human rights come to light, this collection will grow to help scientists, the scientific community, and those affiliated apply the message of the Statement to their work, their research, and to fair and strong policy.
Articles
Origin and Development of the 2017 AAAS Statement on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility (2017)
Professor Melissa S. Anderson, Professor of Higher Education at the University of Minnesota and former Chair of the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, and Dr. Mark S. Frankel, former Director of the AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program.
Statement on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility: Considering Context (2017)
Professor Jay Aronson is an Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society in the History Department, as well as founder and Director of the Center for Human Rights Science at Carnegie Mellon University.
Freedom, Responsibility, and Human Right to Science (2017)
Professor Molly Land is Professor of Law and Human Rights at the University of Connecticut and the Associate Director of the Human Rights Institute, and Sarah Hamilton earned her LL.B. from the University of Sheffield and is currently pursuing an LL.M. in Human Rights and Social Justice at the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Scientific Freedom and Responsibility (1975)
The ad hoc Committee issued a report in 1975, Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, which is often referred to as “The Edsall Report,” after its chief author, Dr. John T. Edsall, a professor of biochemistry at Harvard University.