Universities must respect peaceful activism and revise repressive policies targeting pro-Palestine solidarity movement: UN expert

GENEVA – Universities must take immediate steps to safeguard the right to protest peacefully on campuses in the context of international solidarity with the Palestinian people, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of assembly and association, Gina Romero, said today. She issued the following statement:

“After reviewing persistent allegations, and talking with around 150 people from 30 countries, including students and faculty members, I can conclude that the situation surrounding protests and international solidarity with the Palestinian people and victims within university environments, coupled with inadequate institutional responses, reveals a widespread hostile environment for the exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Now that peaceful assemblies in universities worldwide have resumed after holidays, re-joining the growing global movement to safeguard Palestinian rights and lives, and anticipating commemoration mobilisations by both Israeli and Palestinian solidarity groups in October, I urge academic institutions to:

i) Recognise and respect the importance of youth meaningful and free engagement, and their valuable contributions for human rights, dignity, peace, and justice, including through exercising their public freedoms;

ii) Immediately cease the stigmatisation and hostilities that silence members of the academic community and discourage the exercise of their rights;

iii) Actively facilitate and protect peaceful assemblies, including by prioritising negotiation and mediation where necessary, and refrain from calling on law enforcement to disperse peaceful protests;

iv) Refrain from and cease any surveillance and retributions against students and staff for expressing their views or participating in peaceful assemblies;

v) Ensure transparent and independent investigation into human rights violations that occurred in the context of the camps and other peaceful assemblies, revoke sanctions related to the exercise of fundamental freedoms, and provide effective and full remedies to affected students and staff; and

vi) Ensure that their regulations are in line with international standards.

Universities and other educational institutions have an important window of opportunity to learn from the experiences of the university-based pro-Palestine solidarity movement and repair the harm. They must recognise that their responsibility extends beyond campus borders – their actions have the potential to shape political discourse, culture, civic education, and ultimately, the future sustainability of democracy, freedoms and human rights. Respecting and guaranteeing dissent is essential to ensure the universities remain spaces for free thought, speech and academic freedom, as well to guarantee freedom of expression, assembly and association.

The brutal repression of the university-based protest movement is posing a profound threat to democratic systems and institutions; it risks alienating an entire generation, damaging their participation and perception of their role in democratic processes, in addition to failing the responsibility to prevent atrocity crimes and to contribute to peace.”