About Us
The International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies (IHRN) is an international consortium of honorary societies in the sciences, engineering, and medicine with a shared interest in human rights. It was founded in 1993 by prominent Dutch human rights lawyer Pieter van Dijk and Nobel Laureates François Jacob (France), Torsten Wiesel (Sweden/United States), and Max Perutz (United Kingdom), to alert national academies to human rights abuses involving fellow scientists and scholars and to equip academies with the tools to provide support in such cases. Carol Corillon served as the first executive director of the IHRN until her retirement in 2016.
Today the IHRN advocates in support of professional colleagues suffering human rights abuses, promotes the free exchange of ideas and opinions among scientists and scholars, and supports the independence and autonomy of national academies and scholarly societies worldwide. The IHRN also raises global awareness of the connections between human rights and science, engineering, and medicine.
Although there is no formal membership, more than 90 academies have participated in IHRN activities.
Founding IHRN Executive Committee Members Pieter van Dijk,
Francois Jacob, Edoardo Vesentini, Torsten Wiesel, and Max Perutz.
The IHRN is governed by an executive committee composed of members from 11 academies around the world. The Committee on Human Rights of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in Washington, D.C. serves as the IHRN's secretariat.
“Many members ... affiliated with the International Human Rights Network, got to know about my case, became concerned, and actively intervened in order to obtain—in a civilized way—improvements in my confinement. For all of those humanitarian actions, I send, from the depths of my heart, my warmest thanks to all of the people who … did everything possible (and impossible) so that my release could become a reality.”