The Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas (CAFA) is pleased to announce the creation of its Gender Working Group, a space for reflection, monitoring and action in response to violations of academic freedom that disproportionately affect women and LGBTQIAPN+ people in universities and educational and research institutions across the continent.
The formation of this Working Group stems from the recognition that attacks on academic freedom—including attempts at censorship, political persecution, threats, and harassment—have intensified in the region and fall particularly harshly on students, teachers, researchers, and academics whose teaching and research programs promote social justice, question power structures, and challenge patriarchal, racist, and authoritarian norms. This initiative is also based on the understanding that such aggressions are not isolated events, but rather respond to deeply rooted structural, institutional and political dynamics.
We believe that solidarity and accompaniment of those who face these forms of violence must be a fundamental starting point for the transformations that this Working Group seeks to promote. In this context, we express our unconditional solidarity with all those involved in education, research and the production of knowledge who have been the target of attempts at silencing and reprisals. We recognize, in particular, that those who, because of their gender identity or expression, or because of their sexual orientation, face greater risks of violence and exclusion in academic spaces, not only because of the subjects they address, but also because of who they are.
Our commitment is therefore twofold: to defend the right to research, teach and debate gender, sexuality and human rights; and to protect those who, because of their identity, are particularly exposed to violations in the exercise of their academic work. The persecution of these voices constitutes a threat not only to those who suffer it, but also to academic freedom as a whole and to collective access to critical thinking, science, art and knowledge: essential pillars of any democracy.
The Gender Working Group will act as a forum to receive, document, make visible and denounce cases; as well as to generate articulations, produce knowledge and promote social transformations from a gender perspective in the face of violations of academic freedom.
We reaffirm our commitment to defend the inalienable right to teach, research, learn and express oneself with freedom and dignity in all spaces where knowledge is produced.
Gender Working Group
Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas
April 8, 2025, Rio de Janeiro
Testimonials from some participants
Amanda André de Mendonça
Rio de Janeiro State University
Fátima Silva
National Confederation of Education Workers (Brazil)
María Luisa Rodríguez Peñaranda
National University of Colombia
Andressa Caldas
Mercosur Institute of Public Policies and Human Rights
To participate or communicate with the WG, please write to:
Camilla Croso, Executive Director CAFA: camilla.croso@cafa-claa.org
Amanda Mendonça: Co-coordinator CAFA Gender WG: amandademendonca@gmail.com