Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education Conveys Alarm at Violent Crackdown on Peaceful Demonstrators at Universities Calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza

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24 June 2024

(Excerpt)

The Human Rights Council this afternoon began an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to education. It also concluded an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education, said since last October, multiple mandate holders had repeatedly issued joint statements regarding the situation in Israel and Gaza. In April, they sounded the alarm on the systematic attacks on schools, universities, teachers, and students that suggested an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, known as ‘scholasticide’.

Ms. Shaheed said she had officially visited the United States this year. Her visit coincided with anti-war demonstrations at universities, including encampments on campus premises, calling for a ceasefire and for universities to review investments with Israel. Ms. Shaheed said her report on the visit would be presented next year but she had already conveyed her alarm at the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators. Student protests expressing solidarity with the suffering civilians in Gaza and denouncing Israeli military actions took place in many other countries, receiving similar treatment. What was alarming was the unequal treatment of those expressing themselves, with pro-Palestinian protesters, including Jewish students, being confronted with disproportionately harsh responses, allegedly for anti-Semitic views, with criticism of the State of Israel conflated with anti-Semitism. The expression of a critical political opinion was not, and never would be, a legitimate ground to restrict freedom of expression.

Presenting her report on the right to academic freedom, Ms. Shaheed said it called for acknowledging academic freedom as being as crucial as a free press or independent judiciary. The worldwide submissions received, available online, showed that in every region, people exercising their academic freedom faced harassment, retaliation, repression, imprisonment and sometimes even death. Ms. Shaheed was especially worried by how curtailments of institutional autonomy; increasing surveillance of students and staff; new public management techniques; and digitalisation and artificial intelligence impacted academic freedom. Prohibiting specific subjects and banning books in schools and libraries also deserved attention.

Ms. Shaheed spoke about her visit to Finland and Finland took the floor as a country concerned.

In the discussion on the right to education, some speakers, among other things, stressed the importance of academic freedom as an integral part of the right to education. States needed to recognise and uphold the right to academic freedom. Speakers expressed concern about growing harassment and surveillance of academics and censorship of academic texts.

A number of speakers discussed the impact of the actions of Israel in occupied Palestinian territory on the right to education for Palestinian children. Systematic targeting of education infrastructure by Israel continued with impunity, and around 90 per cent of schools and all universities had been destroyed. Some speakers expressed concern about the violent repression of university students in the United States who protested the conflict in Gaza. One speaker said the report of the Special Rapporteur dangerously misrepresented the definition of anti-Semitism and distorted the realities faced by Jewish students and scholars since 7 October. In 2023, there was a 235 per cent rise in anti-Semitic incidents. Universities had become hotbeds of Jewish hate.

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Speaking in the discussion on the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education were Qatar on behalf of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, European Union, Egypt on behalf of the Group of Arab States, Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Cabo Verde on behalf of a group of countries, Gambia on behalf of a Group of African States, Bahrain on behalf of a group of countries, Malaysia on behalf of a group of countries, Lesotho, Lithuania, Portugal, Iran, Sierra Leone, Kuwait, Czechia, Ireland, Morocco, Armenia, Luxembourg, Nepal, Israel and Egypt.

Speaking in right of reply were Rwanda, Israel and State of Palestine

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Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education

Reports

The Council has before it the reports of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Farida Shaheed, on academic freedom (A/HRC/56/58) and on her visit to Finland (A/HRC/56/58/Add.1).

Presentation of Reports

FARIDA SHAHEED, Special Rapporteur on the right to education, presented her thematic report on the right to academic freedom. Since last October, multiple mandate holders had repeatedly issued joint statements regarding the situation in Israel and Gaza. They unequivocally condemned targeted and deadly violence directed at civilians in Israel and violent indiscriminate attacks against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, including indiscriminate and disproportionate killing of children, women and men of all ages and the weaponisation of humanitarian assistance and essentials.

In April, they sounded the alarm on the systematic attacks on schools, universities, teachers, and students that suggested an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, known as ‘scholasticide’. Demands for an immediate cease-fire, and for ending blockades and restrictions on the delivery of life-saving aid to civilians were not heeded, illustrating the lack of capacity, as human rights monitoring mechanisms, to protect people in the most vulnerable situations.

Ms. Shaheed said she had officially visited the United States this year. Her visit coincided with anti-war demonstrations at universities, including encampments on campus premises, calling for a ceasefire and for universities to review investments with Israel. Ms. Shaheed said her report on the visit would be presented next year but she had already conveyed her alarm at the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators. Student protests expressing solidarity with the suffering civilians in Gaza and denouncing Israeli military actions took place in many other countries, receiving similar treatment. What was alarming was the unequal treatment of those expressing themselves, with pro-Palestinian protesters, including Jewish students, being confronted with disproportionately harsh responses, allegedly for anti-Semitic views, with criticism of the State of Israel conflated with anti-Semitism. All States should prohibit the advocacy of any views that constituted incitement to violence, hostility or discrimination. The expression of a critical political opinion was not, and never would be, a legitimate ground to restrict freedom of expression.

The current report called for acknowledging academic freedom as being as crucial as a free press or independent judiciary. The worldwide submissions received, available online, showed that in every region, people exercising their academic freedom faced harassment, retaliation, repression, imprisonment and sometimes even death. Ms. Shaheed was especially worried by how curtailments of institutional autonomy; increasing surveillance of students and staff; new public management techniques; and digitalisation and artificial intelligence impacted academic freedom. Prohibiting specific subjects and banning books in schools and libraries also deserved attention. There were multiple actors: Governments, religious or political groups, armed and terrorist groups, but also sometimes the educational institutions themselves, school boards, staff and students, and parents’ associations.

Academic freedom was the freedom to access, disseminate and produce information; to think freely; to 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 took place inside the academic community or outside it. Academic freedom should not be politicised. Ensuring academic freedom required institutional autonomy; so academic, research and teaching institutions themselves must respect academic freedom. Academic freedom was intrinsic to the entitlement to receive and provide quality education and needed to be protected at all levels of education. This should be followed even on controversial issues. Ms. Shaheed called on the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom to be endorsed and implemented by all.

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Discussion

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A number of speakers discussed the impact of the actions of Israel in occupied Palestinian territory on the right to education for Palestinian children. Systematic targeting of education infrastructure by Israel continued with impunity, they said. Around 90 per cent of schools and all universities had been destroyed. These actions dismantled the future of Palestinian society. A permanent ceasefire was needed in Gaza and perpetrators of violations of children’s rights to education needed to be held accountable. Some speakers expressed concern about violent repression of university students in the United States who protested the conflict in Gaza.

One speaker said the report of the Special Rapporteur dangerously misrepresented the definition of anti-Semitism and distorted the realities faced by Jewish students and scholars since 7 October. In 2023, there was a 235 per cent rise in anti-Semitic incidents. Universities had become hotbeds of Jewish hate. Protests in universities were not calling for the protection of the rights of the Palestinian people, they were calling for the destruction of Israel. Academic freedom and freedom of speech could not be used as an excuse for anti-Semitism.

Some speakers asked about what States could do to protect the right to academic freedom and protect academics from harassment and reprisals; how States should support non-governmental organizations providing education for children; and about measures to protect academic freedom in the context of the increasing use of digital technologies. One speaker called on the Special Rapporteur to, in a future report, focus on the effects of Israel’s actions on Palestinians’ right to education.