SAR speaks at UN Side Event: Freedom of Opinion and Expression and Academic Freedom
Posted October 29, 2020
On October 22, 2020, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Permanent Mission of Finland to the UN, Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the UN, Open Society Foundations’ Education Program, and Scholars at Risk (SAR) co-organized a side event on Freedom of Opinion and Expression and Academic Freedom, in advance of the presentation of a groundbreaking report on academic freedom at the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly the following day.
At the side event, Professor David Kaye, former Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and author of the report, gave a presentation broadly outlining its substance, followed by a discussion with Ms. Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Ms. Camilla Croso, Director of the Education Program of the Open Society Foundations, Dr. Maleiha Malik, Executive Director of the Protection of Education in Insecurity and Conflict, Education Above All Foundation, and Mr. Robert Quinn, founding Executive Director of SAR.
Crucially, the report recognizes explicitly that academic freedom is protected under existing human rights law, and addresses, at an unprecedented level of detail and breadth, issues relating to academic freedom including: the right to protection for academic expression within a scholar’s expertise but outside the lab or classroom (so-called extramural expression); gender-based attacks on academic freedom; restrictions on academic travel and international exchange as violations of academic freedom; and student expression/on-campus protest as a protected form of academic expression. The report represents a powerful and important articulation of the meaning and scope of academic freedom, and SAR enthusiastically welcomes its release.