Side Event on the Margins of the 59th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council: Regional Approaches to Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom
Tuesday 24 June 2025, 12:00-13:00 CEST
Room XXII at Palais des Nations, Geneva & Online
To Attend Online: To Attend In-Person: &
(※ Please note that you will need a valid UN pass to access the meeting room, and as space is limited, in-person registration will be closed once room capacity has been reached.)
The right of academic freedom is essential to safeguarding and passing on cultures of research, teaching, inquiry and expression that support rights-respecting societies. Yet for the past two decades, academic freedom has been in decline and continues to be under attack in all corners of the globe today. According to the 2024 report of the Academic Freedom Index (AFI) academic freedom is declining in 23 countries and improving in only 10. Over half of the world’s population, 56.5%, now live in environments where academic freedom is either completely or severely restricted¹. Scholars at Risk’s annual Free to Think report further underlines the challenges facing scholars, students, and institutions of higher education. The 2024 Free to Think report details 391 separate attacks across 51 countries highlighting concerning trends across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. These trends include inter and intra-state armed conflict, violent crackdowns on dissent both inside and outside of campus, as well as illiberal policies focused on limiting rights to speech and protest.
Given the global nature of these attacks, an equally robust global response is needed to reverse these trends and strengthen protections so that more scholars, students, and education institutions are able to pursue their truth-seeking mission unhindered, something that directly benefits the general public. Toward this end, in recent years, innovative and effective approaches in the form of regional coalitions for academic freedom have emerged in Africa, the Americas, and Southeast Asia.
Launched in 2021 the Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas (CAFA), followed by the Africa Coalition for Academic Freedom (ACAF) and the Southeast Asia Coalition for Academic Freedom (SEACAF) in 2024 mark an important development in this effort. Each of these Coalitions advance protections by building a robust and constantly growing membership of academic freedom supporters, advancing advocacy, research, and monitoring of academic freedom violations and, finally, by helping develop or deepen the implementation of frameworks for academic freedom.
Frameworks on academic freedom are particularly important for articulating fundamental values and for providing guidance on how best to protect them. While specific articles may differ from one instrument to another, often they answer the questions of what is academic freedom, what does it require, who are the rights holders, and who are the duty bearers. Existing examples include the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom at the global level and the Inter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy at the regional level.
Regional frameworks, in particular, are critical for localizing protection commitments and adapting them to regional experiences, histories, and human rights mechanisms. Furthermore, regional frameworks demonstrate that academic freedom is not an imported or relative value but a universal one, indigenous to each and every global region. Nonetheless, the development and implementation of these regional frameworks can benefit from the support of the entire global community, including by providing the financial and political support necessary to ensure that this human right is implemented by international actors, states, higher education institutions, and individuals in that region.
The right to education, including the right to academic freedom, is enshrined in numerous international human rights instruments, including Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and is reaffirmed annually in the Human Rights Council resolution on the right to education. Most recently, Human Rights Council Resolution 53/7 (2023) stresses that “human rights in the context of access to education, such as, but not limited to, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to seek, receive or impart information, as well as academic freedoms, must be respected, protected and fulfilled,” emphasizing the importance of academic freedom towards the fulfillment of the right to education.
In light of the UN HRC Resolution on Education as well as the interactive dialogue convened by UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Farida Shaheed, this side-event will explore regional approaches to advancing academic freedom and examine how normative frameworks contribute to its protection and implementation globally.
This side event, co-organized by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education and Scholars at Risk on the margins of the 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council will feature leading voices from diverse regions on academic freedom including:
- Farida Shaheed: UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education
- Bencharat Sae Chua: Director of Southeast Asia Coalition for Academic Freedom (SEACAF)
- Camilla Croso: Director of Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas (CAFA)
- Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua: Director of Africa Coalition for Academic Freedom (ACAF)
- Jesse Levine: Senior Advocacy Officer of Scholars at Risk (Moderator)
The duration of the panel will be 60 minutes and include brief prepared remarks by the panelists followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience. The event will be held in English without interpretation.
To Attend Online: To Attend In-Person: &
(※ Please note that you will need a valid UN pass to access the meeting room, and as space is limited, in-person registration will be closed once room capacity has been reached.)