Press release | Care is not a crime: academies call for defense of healthcare professionals
News
©Mathieu Baumer
Paris, July 1st, 2025
As a member of the Executive Committee of the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Learned Societies (IHRN), the Academy of Sciences' Committee for the Defense of Scientists (Codhos) joins the Network's Human Rights Executive Committee's statement to raise awareness of the issue of violence against healthcare professionals, including in conflict zones.
--> Read the original version of the statement
--> Read the translation of the statement proposed by the Academy of Sciences
Anne Ephrussi and Jean Iliopoulos, co-presidents of the Scientists' Defense Committee of the Académie des sciences, Member of the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Learned Societies
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The Committee for the Defense of Scientists of the Academy of Sciences
Constituted in 1978, the Codhos' mission is to intervene when scientists (this term being taken in its broadest sense, including academics of all disciplines, engineers and health personnel) are victims of human rights violations. The Committee, whose missions are set out in the Academy's statutes, is part of an international network (the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies), ensuring both verification of the information it receives and a wider scope of intervention.
Although the impact of Codhos' actions is difficult to measure, the reactions of the various authorities and the improvements noted in certain cases prove that this Committee does not work in vain. Also, the duty of solidarity alone justifies its existence.
Press Contact
Anne Ephrussi
Co-President of the Committee for the Defense of Scientists at the French Academy of Sciences
Jean Iliopoulos
Co-President of the Committee for the Defense of Scientists at the French Academy of Sciences
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