WORLD UNIVERSITY SERVICE Academic Freedom 2 A HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT * EDITED BY John Daniel, Frederiek de Vlaming, Nigel Hartley, Manfred Nowak Zed Books World University Service Academic Freedom 2 was first published in 1993 by Zed Books Ltd, 57 Caledonian Road, London NI 9BU and 165 First Avenue, Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey 07716, in association with the W orld University Service, 5 Chemin des Iris, 1216 Geneva. Copyright © W orld University Service Cover designed by Andrew Corbett Typeset by W orld University Service Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn All rights reserved Tue right ofthe authors ofthis work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library US CIP is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 1 85649 219 2 Hb Contents About the Contributors Vll 1. Introduction The Editors 1 Academic Freedom and International Instruments 3 World University Service and Human Rights 6 2. The Right to Education_: lts Significance and Limitations Manfred Nowak 8 The History of the Right to Education 8 The Meaning of the Right to Education 10 Violations 13 Conclusions 14 3. Burma (Myanmar) Martin Smith 17 Political Background 17 Social and Economic Background 18 General Human Rights Situation 20 The Education System 21 The Right to Education 26 Discrimination 28 Academic Freedom 30 Limitations on Freedom of Association 36 Limitations on Freedom of Expression 38 4. Lebanon Anonymous 42 Socio-economic Conditions 43 The Education System 45 Human Rights 46 The Right to Education 48 Academic Freedom 50 5. Malawi Richard Carver 55 Social and Economic Situation 56 General Human Rights Situation 57 The Education System 60 The Right to Education: Limitations and Violations 61 Institutional and Legal Status of Higher Education 65 Freedom of Associa tion 68 Freedom of Expression 70 6. Palestine Penny Johnson and Mark Taylor 78 Human Rights: An Overview 78 Israeli Justification 78 Marked Violations in 1990-91 79 Status of the Right to Education 80 Violations of Academic Freedom 82 The Rights of Students 83 Academic Freedom and Faculty Rights 84 Settler University Violates International Law 84 7. Paraguay Jorge I.ara Castro 86 The Right to Education 88 Higher Education 91 Violations of Academic Freedom 96 Conclusions 97 8. Sri Lanka Hema Goonatilake 99 The Human Rights Situation 99 Universities in the South of Sri Lanka 101 Universities in the North and East 104 A Personal Testimony 105 9. Sudan Leah Leatherbee and Hibaaq Osman 117 The Right to Education 120 Violations of Academic Freedom 122 The Crackdown on Khartoum University 125 Other Student Actions 129 Dismissal of Faculty Members 129 Forced Training in the Popular Defence Force Camps 132 10. Swaziland John Daniel 136 Socio-economic Conditions 140 General Human Rights Situation 141 The Education System 143 State-Student Confrontation: the Rise of PUDEMO 147 Conclusions 151 Annex 1: The Lima Declara tion on Academic Freedom and Institutions of Higher Education 153 Annex 2: The Poznan Declaration on Academic Freedom 159 Index 163 About the Contributors Richard Carver is a journalist and researcher on human rights and Africa. He has worked for various international human rights organisations including Amnesty International, Article 19 and Africa Watch. He is also the author of The Struggle for Health (Macmillan 1985), abouth health and underdevelopment. John Daniel is Professor of Political Science at the University of Durban Westville and former Acting Director of International Studies Unit, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. Frederiek de Vlaming is the Human Rights Officer of the World University Service, Geneva, Switzerland. Hema Goonatilake is a lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Singhalese, University of Kelanaya, Sri Lanka. She is currently working as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme in New York and is a former Chairperson of WUS Sri Lanka and member of the WUS Executive Committee (1985 to 1989). Nigel Hartley is a lawyer and Secretary General of the World University Service in Geneva, Switzerland. Penny Johnson is Director of the Public Relations Office of Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine. Mark Taylor is Information Officer in the same office. \ Jorge Lara Castro is Professor of Sociology at the Universidad Cat6lica de Paraguay and visiting professor at several universities in Mexico. A member of WUS Paraguay. Leah Leatherbee and Hibaaq Osman are researchers for The Fund for Peace, New York, USA. Leah Leatherbee is Director of its Horn of Africa Programme. Manfred Nowak is Professor of International Law at the Verwaltungs Akademie des Bundes and Director of the Ludwig Boltzman Institute of Human Rights, Vienna, Austria. Vll Ac.ademic Freedom Martin Smith is a joumalist specialising in Burmese affairs. He is author of Burma: lnsurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity (Zed Books, London, 1991) and has made several television documentaries on Burma, including Burma: Dying for Democracy (Channel Four, 1989) and Forty Million Hostages (BBC, 1991). He has also reported on Burma for many different news and human rights organisations, including the Guardian, the Anti-Slavery Society and Article 19. Vill 1. Introduction The Editors Respect for and protection of academic freedom and university autonomy are not only essential to ensure a healthy educational system, but also, in our view, necessary preconditions for the safeguarding of other freedoms and efforts towards development and the maintenance of democracy. In 1984, World University Service (WUS) .adopted as a basic principle that academic freedom is a universal human right, a civil liberty according to which all should be free to seek the truth about anything and to pass it on to others. This right makes it incumbent upon authorities not to penalise, dismiss or harass academics for pursuing the truth or to penalise students involved in the process of critical inquiry. On the contrary, these authorities should supply conditions conducive to full freedom of teaching, research and study. The WUS initiative was a response to growing concems about the alarming tendency of some govemments to undermine, restrict or suppress academic freedom and the autonomy of institutions of higher education in the name of economic austerity and political expediency. Manfred Nowak, former director of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, was assigned by WUS to draft a declaration on academic freedom and university autonomy which, after considerable consultation and debate, was finally adopted in Lima in 1988. As formulated in the Lima Declaration on Academic Freedom and Autonomy of Institutions of Higher Education, academic freedom is a human right of special importance to the higher education sector, a right derived from the right to education and related to the rights to freedom of thought and freedom of opinion and expression. The Lima Declaration defines the academic community as 'all those persons teaching, studying, researching and working at an institution of higher education'. The point of departure of the declaration is that no freedom can be protected for a section of the community if the rights and freedoms of other sections are unprotected. The declaration recognises the academic community 1 Academic Freedom as one entity within a given institutional framework, the various sections of which have different but complementary roles in the processes of academic pursuits and functions. lt is WUS's belief that academic freedom is an essential precondition for the education, research, administrative and service functions with which universities and other institutions of higher education are entrusted. In the Lima Declaration, academic freedom is defined as 'the freedom of members of the academic community, individually or collectively, in the pursuit, development and transmission of knowledge, through research, study, discussion, documentation, production, creation, teaching, lecturing and writing'. This definition is intentionally broad and takes into account the important role of artists and librarians attached to higher educational institutions in the pursuit and transmission of knowledge. Academic freedom is a special right for a particular group in society only in so far as it goes beyond the general human rights of freedom of expression and information. The Lima [)eclara tion considers academic freedom as applicable mainly to individual members of the academic community. Autonomy is the institutional form of academic freedom and a necessary precondition for the fulfilment of the functions with which higher educational institutions are entrusted. The declaration states that 'autonomy means the independence of the institutions of higher education from the State and all other forces of society, to make decisions regarding their policies of education, research, extension work and other related activities'. WUS does not consider that higher educational institutions should be exempt from positive suggestions and/or constructive criticisms by society, but it recognises the need to safeguard these institutions from undue pressures from the state and vested business interests. There exist clearly acceptable responsibilities that the institutions of higher education should pursue. These are stated in the declaration to avoid any 'ivory tower' conception of autonomy. But in defining and arguing for academic freedom and autonomy, the authors of