In her new report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Farida Shaheed calls for considering academic freedom as an autonomous human right, grounded in several provisions of international law. CAFA interviewed Farida Shaheed, who presented her own point of view on key aspects of the debates concerning academic freedom. Read the full interview below.
More:
- UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education defends taking academic freedom as an autonomous right
- Click here to download the report.
CAFA: How would you define academic freedom for a broader audience, unfamiliar to such term?
FS: Academic freedom is what allows human beings to be creative and develop critical thinking – thinking outside the box. It entails having the right to teach; to engage in discussions and debates with individuals and groups inside and beyond academic communities; to conduct research; and to disseminate opinions and results of research. These interdependent aspects can be exercised both within educational settings – in classrooms, in academic institutions amongst scholars – but also through discussions engaging the wider society, including on social media, for example.
It’s crucial that members of the academic community be free to disseminate their findings and understanding through their teaching and sharing them with the wider society. However, academic freedom carries special duties to seek the truth and to impart information according to ethical and professional standards and to respond to contemporary problems and needs of all members of society.
People sometimes believe that academic freedom only relates to professionals at the highest level of education, such as university professors. But, as a human right, academic freedom belongs to all researchers, educators and students, at all levels of education. At the lower levels of education, too, teachers should enjoy academic freedom in the discharge of professional duties and students should enjoy their academic freedom with respect to their findings and expression.
CAFA: What would you highlight in terms of the relation between the right to academic freedom and the right to education and the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4)?
FS: My latest report on academic freedom does precisely that; it addresses academic freedom from a right to education perspective. I consider academic freedom to be an integral part of the right to quality education, which can only be enjoyed if accompanied by the academic freedom of staff and students.
Education is – and must be – a forum for ideas that fosters creativity and critical thinking. As all educational levels are interrelated and influence each other, synergies between different levels of education are essential to ensure quality education in terms of both content and pedagogy. A primary task of educators is to facilitate the development of academic skills amongst their students, including by mediating difficult conversations and diverse views, which is why the right to freedom of expression includes teaching.
This does not mean that academic freedom is limited to campuses, however. To the contrary, academic, research and teaching staff, as well as students, have both a right and a social responsibility to engage with the public by sharing the content of research, teaching or discourses developed in the education sector, including through academic and non-academic publications, public testimonies, print and online media, radio, television, and public displays such as exhibitions and peaceful demonstrations.
CAFA: How, in your perception, academic freedom connects to other human rights, in their indivisibility?
FS: The connection of academic freedom with other human rights is manifold. As the preamble of the Inter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy notes, “academic freedom is an independent and interdependent human right, which enables the exercise of a series of other rights”. Rights are indivisible and as I stress in my report, academic freedom is integral to the right to education. It is closely linked to the “freedom indispensable for scientific research and creative activity” as specified in the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, and therefore central to the right to access, participate in and contribute to science and cultural life in all its aspects. Therefore, academic freedom is linked to the enjoyment of human rights derived from scientific advancements such as food, water, health, housing, on the one hand and access to information, public services and participation in decision-making arenas, for example on the other. It is difficult, in fact, to find areas of our lives that do not rely in one way or the other on the results of scientific research or academic freedom.
Ensuring that members of the academic community can share their findings including in public discussions is key to ensuring that decisions made by politicians are aligned with the best scientific evidence available. This is also crucial to combat corruption, as well as misinformation and disinformation.
CAFA: Which do you think are the most urgent issues in terms of violations to academic freedom and what strategies should be adopted to counter these violations?
FS: There are so many! I think we have to pay equal attention to both direct often violent repression, and more subtle methods of violating academic freedom. Actors violating academic freedom want to control public opinion and free thinking, reducing the scope of scientific debate. What I mean is that many people are clear that we must be vigilant and strongly stand up to defend academics that are harassed, threatened, detained or lose their jobs in retaliation for their research. But, we must be equally vigilant and as strongly combat methods of control that are developed through public or private funding; the privatization, commodification, digitalization (including the introduction of artificial intelligence), platformization and assetization of education for example; as well as the development of surveillance of in-campus activities or the support for specific students’ organizations, for example.
I am particularly concerned about recent events in a number of countries where institutional autonomy and the inviolability of educational institutions have been disregarded. Institutional autonomy is instrumental to academic freedom. The inviolability of educational institutions, especially in higher education, must safeguard against on-site surveillance and harassment, which are highly detrimental to academic freedom, as they create a climate of fear and self-censorship of both staff and students.
Finally, I am worried about the concept of “neutrality of teaching”, often used in reference to elementary and secondary school education. This concept is viewed and presented as a guarantee against religious, political or other kinds of indoctrination. However, increasingly, it seems to be used as a weapon to curtail academic freedom thereby becoming a medium of indoctrination itself. Education must be free of propaganda and must focus on the free development and exercise of critical thinking, which is at the core of the right to learn. It is important that States understand that academic freedom does not require neutrality but should enable intellectual discourse, critique and commitment; States should review their policies with this in mind.