On April 25, 2024, police forcibly evacuated students occupying the Academy Building at the University of Groningen (RUG).

Earlier in the day, a group of students had met with RUG’s Executive Board to continue a series of discussions about social safety at RUG. One of the students’ demands was that RUG reinstate Susanne Täuber, a former professor and social safety expert whom RUG had dismissed in March 2023 following a years-long dispute related to Täuber’s critiques of the university’s implementation of its policy on gender equality (see report).

Around 100 students affiliated with a protest group Occupy RUG occupied the Academy Building after it became clear that the Executive Board would not reinstate Täuber. According to university officials, police asked students to leave the building several times before moving in to forcibly evacuate the students. A video taken during the evacuation shows police dragging a student down the stairs by their legs. An assistant professor who was not involved in the occupation told reporters that police had hit her with a baton. Police made no arrests.

Scholars at Risk is concerned by the use of force by police to disperse students exercising their peaceful rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly—conduct that is expressly protected by international human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. State authorities have a responsibility to refrain from restricting the nonviolent exercise of such rights. In addition to the harm to the immediate victims, the use of force to restrict or deter nonviolent student expression undermines academic freedom and democratic society more generally.

Sources:
https://northerntimes.nl/academy-building-occupied-again-by-protestors-calling-for-reinstatement-of-professor-susanne-tauber/
https://nltimes.nl/2023/04/26/groningen-university-students-stage-new-protest-professors-dismissal
https://delta.tudelft.nl/en/article/shock-after-violent-evacuation-groningen
https://www.instagram.com/p/CreGL6PImpw/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again