Academic Freedom and Expression: Navigating Challenges in Gaza, Palestine, and Beyond – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Farida Shaheed – Advance unedited version (A/HRC/56/58)

25 April 2024

(Excerpt)

Human Rights Council

Fifty-sixth session

18 June–12 July 2024

Agenda item 3

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development

Summary

The present report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Farida Shaheed, examines the right to academic freedom from a right to education perspective. It proposes considering academic freedom an autonomous human right grounded in several provisions of international law.

Academic freedom is the freedom to access, disseminate and produce information; to think freely; and develop, express, apply and engage with a diversity of knowledge within or related to one’s expertise or field of study, regardless of whether it takes place inside the academic community (“intramural expression”) or outside the academic community, including with the public (“extramural expression”). It is a human right the exercise of which carries special duties to seek truth and impart information according to ethical and professional standards, and to respond to contemporary problems and needs of all members of society.

In the sphere of education, the Special Rapporteur supports an approach of academic freedom which all researchers, educators and students are entitled to, at all levels of education, taking into consideration the developing capacities and maturity of students. Academic freedom includes four interdependent pillars: the right to teach, to engage in discussions and debates with persons and groups inside (including in classrooms) and outside the academic community, to conduct research, and to disseminate opinions and research results. Such approach requires understanding the vitality of free expression in teaching, to review the concept of “neutrality” in education, and to reconsider processes for accrediting school manuals and imposing or prohibiting specific subjects from curricula, having in mind the aims of education under international human rights law. Educators can only foster critical thinking and provide diverse perspectives if they, themselves, enjoy academic freedom, while upholding the principles of pluralism, respect for others, and the pursuit of knowledge.

The Special Rapporteur draws the attention of the Human Rights Council and all stakeholders to the set of Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, drafted by a working group of United Nations experts, scholars, and civil society actors, based on and reflecting the status of international law and practice. Endorsement and implementation of these Principles would allow a better state of academic freedom worldwide.

…

44. Many contributors reported on actions to curtail speech on issues relating to Israel/Palestine. On 23 November 2023, four Special Rapporteurs raised concerns about suspensions and expulsions of students from universities, dismissal of academics, calls for their deportation, threats to dissolve student unions and associations, and restrictions on campus meetings to express solidarity with the suffering civilians in Gaza and denounce the ongoing Israeli military response. In some universities, students have been blacklisted as supporters of terrorism, with accompanying threats to their prospects for future employment. It is reported, for example, that about 120 universities in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which conflates criticisms of Israel with antisemitism, to silence lawful speech supportive of Palestinian human rights and the right to self-determination. University staff and students have been subjected to unreasonable investigations and disciplinary proceedings based on this re-definition, and harmed by false allegations of antisemitism. Academic freedom has also been curtailed as a result of measures to prevent terrorism, particularly in relation to expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people since 7 October 2023. The Special Rapporteur is equally concerned at the reported increase of antisemitism in universities following the 7 October massacre, but regrets that the resort to the IHRA definition brings confusion on such an important issue. Academic freedom does not protect advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.

…

56. More attention should be directed at the undue influence by philanthropists too, as exemplified by a case at the University of Toronto’s law school. In 2020, the school’s dean stopped the hiring of a professional unanimously selected by a hiring Committee to direct the International Human Rights Program, following lobby by a group whose former board member was a major donor to the university, and had warned the university of possible consequences in terms of fundraising. Other examples include the pressure exercised by major donors or alumni on Harvard, Penn and MIT universities in the United States of America, calling for the firing of their President or withholding of donations, as retaliation for failing to adequately condemn Hamas’ 7 October attack on Israel.

…

62. The inviolability of educational institutions premises, especially in higher education, is an element of institutional autonomy and a strong guarantee for academic freedom, impeding on-site surveillance and harassment. Many countries prohibit the entry of police or military personnel into educational institutions without prior authorization, except in exceptional circumstances, for example to prevent or investigate crimes or misdemeanours or in the case of natural disasters. These general rules are not applied everywhere, however. For example, reports indicate that in some countries institutional safeguards are repeatedly breached; and that in others, there is no restriction on the access of police or military personnel to educational institutions. It is also reported that the police or military can freely enter school premises, unless they are private or higher education institutions; and that States have unilaterally banned agreements to prohibit such entry. In other countries, rules do not differentiate the police’s or military’s ability to act within a campus from elsewhere. Reportedly, in some places, cases of interventions not authorized by the academic authorities on university premises for reasons of public order have increased. The Special Rapporteur is also worried by reports that police interventions, including in schools for younger children, have led to children and youth being strip-searched or submitted to humiliating and intimidating “public arrests” and “public trials” on campus; and announcements that more walk through schools by the police will be organized in some countries to prevent terrorism and turmoil, particularly in the context of the war in Gaza. Concerns are raised regarding possible racial profiling of staff and students in this respect.

63. The institutionalization of students playing the role of government informants in classrooms is reported in several countries, with some of these informants remaining ‘students’ long after they should have graduated. These informants may report students’ opinions on the school’s teaching plans, teaching content, methods and infrastructure, as well as teachers’ attitude and quality, especially to censor critics of the Government. It is also reported that students belonging to pro-Israel campus groups surveil professors and report what they deem to be anti-Semitic speech or materials to university authorities. According to other reports, students from China, particularly Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet have also faced surveillance, intimidation, and harassment while studying abroad, and their families have been harassed.

…