Date:13/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/13/stories/2008051353981000.htm

National

Nobel laureates seek release of Binayak Sen

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Nobel Prize winners from across the world have appealed to India to free human rights activist Binayak Sen on humanitarian grounds to enable him to receive the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights in Washington on May 29.

The 22 Nobel Prize winners expressed “grave concern” that Dr. Sen appears to be incarcerated solely for peacefully exercising his fundamental human rights, which is in contravention of Articles 19 (freedom of opinion and expression) and 22 (freedom of association) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which India is a state party — and that he is charged under two internal security laws that do not conform with international human rights standards.

The signatories to the appeal are: Peter Agre, Kenneth J. Arrow, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Robert Curl, Johann Deisenhofer, Paul Greengard, Roger Guillemin, Francois Jacob, Eric Kandel, Harald Kroto, Finn Kydland, Yuan T. Lee, Craig C. Mello, Johan Polanyi, Richard J. Roberts, F. Sherwood Rowland, Jens C.Skou, Phillip A. Sharp, Charles Townes, Harold Varmus, John E. Walker and Torsten Wiesel.