Former Steering Committee member, Hector Ulloa, participated on behalf of the GSF in a side-event to the UN's 53rd Human Rights Council Session.
At the event, the principles for Implementing the Right of Academic Freedom were presented by Hector, together with Jesse Levine from Scholars at Risk; and commented on by the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Farida Shaheed; and Uruguay's Ambassador to the UN Offices in Geneva, Álvaro Moerzinger Pagani; among others.
For many months the GSF has participated in the working group tasked with drafting those principles. The text seeks to provide new guidance to UN organizations and member states on how to assess and promote the right to academic freedom.
During his intervention, Hector highlighted the need to recognize academic freedom as a fundamental pillar of modern democracies and the need to fully distinguish it as a human right of its own. Additionally, he highlighted the urgent need to acknowledge that students benefit of the full range of human rights - including the right to academic freedom. The GSF will continue advocating for the adaptation of existing monitoring mechanisms in order to promptly document threats to academic freedom and enable quick reactions whenever this right is under attack.
