Scientists and Human Rights in Syria (2000)

Summary: In 1993, when this report was written, the Committee on Human Rights (CHR) had documented the ongoing detention of 238 scientific colleagues and believed that Syria could well be the country with the highest number of colleagues detained for political reasons. Following presidential amnesties in 1990 and 1991, the CHR’s sources indicated that at least 49 colleagues had been released, but the CHR was not able to obtain confirmation of their status from the Syrian government, nor whether any others on its list of cases had been released as well. The committee hoped that, by publishing its report, the Syrian government would be encouraged to give an accounting of those who had been released and those who remained in detention. The report provides information on colleagues still detained, those released shortly before the publication was written, and new arrests. It also gives a former prisoner’s eyewitness account of the arrest and detention in 1980 of 21 engineers and lawyers who were then held for nearly 12 years because of their participation in the human rights activities of the engineers’ and bar associations. Additionally, the report discusses ongoing controls over the professional associations and prospects for liberalization.