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Last month, Scholars at Risk released Free to Think 2024, the annual report of our Academic Freedom Monitoring Project, which analyzes 391 attacks on higher education across 51 countries and territories.
Scholars at Risk has reported on this global phenomenon of attacks at similarly worrying levels over the years. The hot spots may shift, as such attacks can happen anywhere. The context may change, as such attacks are diverse and range from violent repression and imprisonment to the drafting of policies that undermine institutional autonomy. These attacks persist, wherever and however they occur, and they necessitate immediate action from the widest range of stakeholders in government, higher education, and civil society.
We need your help; this phenomenon of attacks can be reversed only if everyone works to address it.
SAR calls on the international community to implement and endorse academic protections based on the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, to support those scholars and students who are most immediately at risk of losing their lives, livelihoods, or access to higher education by creating career opportunities for at-risk scholars, and to join the SAR Network to build international collaboration and consensus on protecting the right to academic freedom around the world.
Thank you for all you do,
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CLARE ROBINSON
Advocacy Director
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Recent Release: Free to Think 2024
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SAR is proud to announce the recent release of Free to Think 2024. As the annual report of SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project, the report documents and analyzes 391 attacks against higher education across 51 countries and territories. Free to Think 2024 demonstrates that attacks against higher education are widespread and can happen anywhere, in authoritarian and democratic societies, and require an immediate, coordinated response from the international community. These attacks include, but are not limited to, the destruction of university infrastructure in armed conflict, the wrongful imprisonment and prosecutions of scholars in retaliation for voicing dissent, the use of violent force to quell student expression, and efforts to pass legislation aimed at restricting teaching and research.
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Highlighted countries include Afghanistan, China, Colombia, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Israel, Nicaragua, Nigeria, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Russia, Türkiye, Sudan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The details of the report resonated across the globe. Free to Think 2024 was covered in prominent higher education and international outlets, including University World News, Times Higher Education, The Hindu, Forschung & Lehre, Al-Fanar Media, Agencia EFE, and La Presse, among others.
No matter where they occur, attacks on academic freedom jeopardize the lives and livelihoods of individual scholars, while also creating a chilling effect that stifles intellectual inquiry and the free exchange of ideas. Universities, as one of the foundational pillars of democracy, must be protected. It is incumbent upon intergovernmental bodies, states, and higher education leaders to work together to take action: Implement and endorse academic protections based on the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, create career opportunities for at-risk scholars, and join the SAR Network to build international collaboration and consensus on protecting the right to academic freedom around the world. Additional practical guidance and resources for taking action are outlined in Free to Think 2024’s “Call to Action”.
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In Remembrance of Professor Saibaba
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SAR is deeply saddened to share that Professor Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba passed away on October 12, 2024 from medical complications.
As an English professor at Delhi University and a human rights activist, Professor Saibaba advocated tirelessly for vulnerable and impoverished communities in India, despite facing extreme political retaliation, including arrest and extended detention.
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For years, SAR partnered with colleagues across the globe, including our Student Advocacy Seminars, to raise awareness about Professor Saibaba’s plight and to seek his release. He was acquitted on March 5, 2024, and released from prison two days later.
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The ensuing months were spent seeking desperately-needed medical care for conditions that were exacerbated by his imprisonment, connecting with family and friends he had not seen in far too long, and, impressively, making time to share his story with the international community, urging us to continue telling it to others, as a means of demonstrating the reality scholars face in India. He wanted us all to understand that his release did not mean the campaign for academic freedom in India was over. He wanted us to keep working, keep questioning. And so, despite his untimely death, we continue onward, in honor of Professor Saibaba’s unwavering dedication to nonviolent political expression and human rights.
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SAR calls for the release of Dr. Nasser bin Ghiath
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On October 29, 2024, SAR sent a letter of action to United Arab Emirates authorities calling for the immediate release of Dr. Nasser bin Ghaith. Dr. Nasser bin Ghaith is an economist, former lecturer at the University of Paris IV Abu Dhabi, and prominent human rights defender who was arrested in 2015 and charged with “committing a hostile act against a foreign state” and “posting false information in order to harm the reputation and stature of the state and one of its institutions.”
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The charges relate to a series of tweets in which he allegedly criticized the Egyptian regime, an ally of the UAE. On March 29, 2017, Dr. bin Ghaith was convicted by the Abu Dhabi Court of Appeals and sentenced to ten years in prison.
More recently, in December 2023, the Abu Dhabi Federal Appeal Court issued new charges against Dr. bin Ghaith. On July 10, 2024, the Abu Dhabi Federal Appeals Court convicted and sentenced Dr. bin Ghaith in a closed-door trial, to life in prison for “establishing and managing a clandestine terrorist organisation,” the ‘Justice and Dignity Committee,’ in 2010. No new evidence supporting the charges was provided.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders has denounced the new charges, and called on the UAE to unconditionally release all human rights defenders in detention. Dr. bin Ghaith needs to be released and returned to his family.
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Events on the Right to Academic Freedom
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Scholars at Risk, in cooperation with our partners at the Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas (CAFA), organized a number of activities on October 24 and 25 in New York. On October 24, Open Society Foundations (OSF) hosted a focused discussion among academic freedom advocates from civil society organizations, foundation partners, and a range of UN offices and agencies. The overarching goals of the discussion were to identify the primary obstacles to implementation of academic freedom globally, and then determine the different international cooperation opportunities for addressing those challenges. This meeting played a critical role in helping SAR’s Working Group on Academic Freedom enter its next phase of work.
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Later that day, OSF hosted a public panel discussion focused on promoting a common understanding of the role of academic freedom within the pursuit of development, human rights, and the right to science and, through that, the identification of key recommendations for more effective implementation of the right to academic freedom. Moderated by CAFA Director Camilla Croso, speakers at the event included UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education Farida Shaheed,
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David Robinson from Education International, Henry D. Wright from Global Student Forum, Pablo Vommaro from CLACSO, and Lily Gray from UNESCO, with closing remarks from Scholars at Risk’s Jesse Levine.
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Finally, on Friday, October 25, in partnership with the New York University Department of Applied Statistics, Social Sciences, and Humanities (ASH), PEN America, CAFA, and SAR organized a day-long symposium on Academic Freedom and Attacks on Education as a Public Good.
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The symposium brought together over 15 experts from throughout the Americas, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, to discuss topics including the current status of academic freedom in the United States, instruments such as the Inter-American Principles on the Right to Academic Freedom, the role of university autonomy, and attacks on K-12 education and the public sphere. One of the core goals of the symposium was to assist in advancing knowledge on academic freedom throughout the Americas toward its implementation.
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Call for news, events, and information to include in the Advocacy Insider
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Do you or your organization have updates to share in the next Advocacy Insider? These may include: a public statement on an academic freedom-related issue; an upcoming event; a new resource; or a media piece. To submit items for consideration, please email SAR’s Advocacy Assistant Helen Hung.
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Attacks against higher education communities
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AZERBAIJAN: On August 21, 2024, Azerbaijan’s State Security Service, the country’s national intelligence office, arrested Bahruz Samadov, a PhD student in political science at Charles University of Prague and freelance Azerbaijani political analyst, in apparent retaliation for his criticisms of the government.
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AZERBAIJAN: On July 22, 2024, Azerbaijan’s State Security Service, the national intelligence office, arrested Igbal Abilov, an Azerbaijani citizen, researcher, and lecturer at Belarussian State University, in apparent retaliation for his research on ethnic minorities across the region.
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BANGLADESH: On September 18, 2024, a group of students beat Jahangirnagar University (JU) student and Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader Shamim Ahmed to death in retaliation for his role in a July attack on protesters associated with the quota reform movement.
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BANGLADESH: On July 18, 2024, Bangladeshi police officers shot, abused, and killed Shykh Aashhabul (also written Ashabul) Yamin, a student at the Military Institute of Science and Technology.
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BANGLADESH: On July 15, 2024, a group of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists, led by the president of Jahangirnagar University’s (JU) BCL branch, attacked a group of students demonstrating as part of the quota reform movement.
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COLOMBIA: On September 13, 2024, a group of unidentified hooded individuals vandalized building facades and detonated explosive devices at the University of Antioquia (UdeA) to protest the university’s budget deficit.
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NIGERIA: On August 15, 2024, unknown gunmen abducted 20 University of Jos and University of Maiduguri medical students, along with a doctor accompanying them, as they were en route to the Federation of Catholic Medical and Dental Students’ annual convention in Benue State.
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NIGERIA: On August 15, 2024, unknown armed gunmen abducted five Enugu State College of Health Technology students as they were leaving the college.
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NIGERIA: On July 11, 2024, unknown gunmen abducted three staff members, including the acting rector, from Benue State Polytechnic’s Ugbokolo campus as the group was returning to the university after a trip to the capitol.
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SUDAN: On July 23, 2024, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) looted the University of Gezira (also written as Al-Jazirah University or Al Jazeera University) in the city of Wad Madani.
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Council of Europe Conference on “Academic Freedom in Action” | November 13, 2024
The launch event of the new Council of Europe project “Academic Freedom in Action” on the democratic mission of higher education will comprise of five panels, including the presentation of the Report on the Threats to Academic Freedom, a Panel Discussion on Academic Freedom and Fundamental Values of Higher Education through the prism of Human Rights organised jointly with the European Court of Human Rights, and the high-level panel on Academic Freedom in Politically Charged Times. SAR Europe Advocacy Manager, Denise Roche, will be participating as a panelist. Read more »
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2024 AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition Meeting | Washington, DC | November 14-15, 2024
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Human Rights Coalition is holding its annual in-person meeting in Washington, DC, November 14-15. This year’s theme is “Building A Culture of Trustworthy Science: Scientific Freedom, Scientific Responsibility and Human Rights.” The meeting’s opening night, which is free, focuses on strategies for supporting researchers at risk. More information available here »
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Issues at the Intersection of Engineering and Human Rights: A Symposium | Washington, DC | November 18 – 19, 2024
On November 18-19, the National Academy of Engineering’s Cultural, Ethical, Social, and Environmental Responsibility in Engineering (CESER) Program and the National Academies’ Committee on Human Rights (CHR) will conduct a symposium exploring issues at the intersection of engineering and human rights. Goals of this symposium include increasing awareness of the role engineers play in protecting and promoting human rights and exploring ways human rights-based approaches to engineering might help engineers and human rights experts solve pressing challenges. Register here »
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CAFA Conference 2024 | Washington, DC | November 20 – 21, 2024
Join SAR, the Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas, and other partners for the CAFA 2024 Conference in Washington, DC from November 20 – 21 2024! Panels will discuss the state of academic freedom in Latin America and beyond, student mobilization and organization, challenges facing the implementation of academic freedom, and more! Register here »
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“All Static & Noise” film screening and discussion | New York, NY, United States | November 25, 2024
Join director David Novack, editor Nancy Novack, and protagonist Jewher Ilham (daughter of imprisoned for life scholar Ilham Tohti) for the New York Premiere of the award-winning documentary All Static & Noise. Tightly edited and beautifully scored, this film features atrocities occurring in the western region of China among Uyghur and Kazakh people. Brought to the screen by those directly impacted by the crisis, the film not only highlights a story that everyone should know about, but it offers hope in the resiliency and determination of its heroes. Buy tickets here »
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Free to Think 2024 event with SAR Canada | Virtual | November 26, 2024
Join SAR Canada and the Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Free Expression for an online discussion on SAR’s newly released Free to Think 2024 report on November 26, 2024. Academic freedom advocates will discuss the top patterns of attack on higher education in 2024 and how the international community can adequately respond to protect academic freedom. Register here »
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NEW REPORT | Activism Under Attack 2024 | Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund
On October 1, 2024, the Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund released a new report Activism Under Attack 2024: “Because of Your Conduct You Do Not Have the Right to Get a Degree.” The report draws on surveys and interviews with student activists to understand their experiences of activism, repression, and solidarity. SAR Senior Program Officer Amy Kapit presented the report, which she co-authored, along with findings from SAR’s Free to Think 2024 at an October 1 event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Norwegian Government’s Students at Risk program.
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ADVOCACY INSIDER is a summary of actions, reported threats, and media on academic freedom worldwide. Have a question or want to get involved in SAR’s advocacy work? Email us at scholarsatrisk@nyu.edu.
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