SAR urges Venezuela to protect academic freedom, student expression

For more than two decades, scholars, students and higher education institutions in Venezuela have faced systemic pressures, including severe encroachments on university autonomy, targeted denials of funding to disfavored institutions, and individual attacks, such as arbitrary detention, arrest, and violence. These pressures have impacted the Venezuelan higher education sector, leading to mass migration out of the country by students and scholars, harming Venezuela’s research output, and severely diminishing educational quality.

Scholars at Risk (SAR), in collaboration with the Ghent University Human Rights Centre Legal Clinic, expresses concerns over these pressures in a submission to the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of Venezuela.