Ei-iE

Organising against the political and ideological attacks on academic freedom and institutional autonomy

Resolution from the 10th World Congress

published 2 August 2024 updated 16 October 2024
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The 10th Education International (EI) World Congress, meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 29 July to 2 August 2024:

  1. Notes with alarm that an increasing number of governments, local and regional authorities and education employers are restricting or banning the teaching of subjects such as critical race theory, gender studies, and studies on (anti-)colonialism in higher and further education.
  2. Further notes that some governments are also limiting or prohibiting equity, diversity, and inclusion programs, undermining tenure or its functional equivalent, weakening trade union rights, and violating principles of shared governnce and institutional autonomy contrary to the principles of the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel.
  3. Observes that these attacks go hand in hand with attempts by governments, conservative and religious groups and right-wing pressure groups to target, monitor, discipline, and silence individual academics.
  4. Recalls the UNESCO 2017 Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers and endorses the UNESCO 2024 call to Action on the Freedom and Safety of Scientists.
  5. Recognises that the impact of global events – particularly conflict and war – have also cast their shadows over our education institutions at a time when higher and further education’s role as a place for the flourishing of free expression, free protest, and other democratic rights is more essential than ever.
  6. Asserts that these developments represent an unprecedented political and ideological assault on academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and the trade union rights of higher and further education teaching personnel.
  7. Strongly condemns all forms of racism, ethnic bias, antisemitism, Islamophobia, ableism, and anti-LGBTQIA+ rights within our educational institutions, communities, and societies.

Congress calls on the EI Executive Board and member organisations to:

  1. Collect and share information about the political and ideological attacks on academic freedom and institutional autonomy.
  2. Share successful organising strategies and campaigns by member organisations to defend the academic, employment, and trade union rights of higher and further education teaching personnel.
  3. Collect and share collective agreement and contract language negotiated by member organisations that protects academic freedom, tenure or its functional equivalent, and shared governance.
  4. Communicate concerns about specific government legislation and actions with the Joint ILO-UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations Concerning Teaching Personnel (CEART) and other relevant bodies.
  5. Ensure this issue is a major theme of the next EI International Higher and Further Education and Research Conference to be held in 2025.