FORCE11 is an international organization working towards improved open digital communications to support an inclusive and global scholarly community. We strongly support all basic democratic rights including freedom of conscience, and freedom of movement, without which open inquiry and scholarly communication cannot be conducted.
For this reason, the FORCE11 Board of Directors strongly opposes all actions selectively restricting immigration or travel based upon religion, national origin or other collective grounds, including the recent US Government actions restricting immigration based on citizenship and origin.
These measures are attacks upon human rights that are foundational to intellectual freedom and open scholarly communication. We urge our members to join us in working to oppose these and all other measures inimical to open scholarship, intellectual freedom, and human dignity. The FORCE11 Board is committed to advocacy and the advancement of technology and social practice to support inclusive intellectual spaces for open enquiry, criticism, validation and preservation of evidence.
We will work to minimise the exclusionary effects of such travel bans through the selection of locations for our activities, through program design and technology. We welcome collaboration with other like-minded organisations to address these issues and reflect together on improving our own practice for building a global and inclusive scholarly community.
2 thoughts on “FORCE11 Statement on Restrictions on Immigration”
Dear colleagues FORCE11 Board of Directors and colleagues,
Thank you all for standing for the FORCE11 commitment for supporting inclusive and global scholarly community with all basic democratic rights. I am proud to be part of FORCE11.
Travel Ban
I sincerely regret this utterly discriminatory and unscientific move by the American government. It does single out a religion because of the deeds of a very small and tiny minority. I’m not from a country whose citizen were barred but I would really feel the jitters if I’m to travel to the United States ( which by the way I’m supposed to do next September ). We, at Force 11, should be very supportive and back up those who, as Cameron said, “do not have high prestige passport “. A scholar is a scholar regardless of his religion, creed, gender, etc… It is in dire time like these that Science, Knowledge, Exchange and GIVING are at their best. I ‘m fully invested in this issue and I’m ready, with my modest means, to do anything that my colleague would ask me to.