Although the embargo does not prohibit many forms of scientific collaboration, the resulting political environment, including the termination of full diplomatic relations, halted a tradition of scientific collaboration that began with the founding of the Cuban Academy of Science in the middle of the nineteenth century. While Cuba is the most scientifically advanced nation in the Caribbean region, basic information about the quality of science, current research, and natural resources is not available to American scientists. Scientific progress depends on the free and open exchange of ideas. One of the most serious of the restrictions on this exchange, and the one addressed by this report, is the restriction on the freedom to travel. The right to freedom of movement across national borders is grounded in the rights to free expression and free association, which are recognized in international human rights treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and a variety of regional agreements.
Freedom of movement is particularly important to scientists.
The free exchange of ideas is one of the most basic values of the scientific enterprise, and the freedom of scientists to travel is one of the most important ways of furthering that objective. The importance to scientists of the freedom to travel and exchange information is widely recognized. AAAS has been striving to ease travel restrictions on scientists since 1951. They testified that U.S. travel policy negatively affects United States scientists and scientific progress in general and cited numerous examples of instances where U.S. travel policy has impeded the free exchange of scientists between the U.S. and Cuba. The impact of U.S. travel restrictions on United States scientists, although not precisely known in terms of the numbers of license requests denied or delayed, has been documented by a number of scientific societies.