From Fighting for Human Rights to Using Science as a Bridge to Peace

 

In 1988, I met with Andrei Sakharov who advised me to never stop pressuring governments or organizations that abuse human rights. Based on his council, I took a crash course in Russian before traveling to the Soviet Union several times to meet with dissidents, despite the risk to my own safety. After the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989, I worked diligently on the issue of human rights in China. Traveling often to work on the release of pro-democracy prisoners, I met with several dissidents of China, including physicist Xu Liangying who was under house arrest. In addition, I worked on human rights cases in Russia, Guatemala, Cuba, Peru, and South Africa. More recent cases I have been involved in are in Iran, Turkey, Greece, and China. After 9/11, After 9/11/2001, I expanded my work on scientific freedom and human rights to the Middle East by organizing the Malta Conferences, which use science diplomacy as a bridge to peace. The Malta Conferences are the only platform in the world that bring together scientists from 15 Middle East countries (Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates), Morocco and Pakistan with Nobel Laureates to work for 5 days on solving regional problems. For too long, the Middle East has been an area of conflict affecting not only the people of the region but also the entire globe. The conflict is aggravated by problems like unsustainable water and energy supplies, rapidly expanding populations, a deteriorating environment, and inadequate educational institutions. The Malta Conferences have made it possible for scientists from countries that are on the opposing sides of political and cultural conflicts to meet in a politically neutral environment. There they can work to forge relationships that bridge the deep chasms of mistrust and intolerance.