Human Rights Watch welcomes the opportunity to provide information to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to schooling ahead of her next report to the Human Rights Council on school freedom and freedom of expression in schools. This presentation covers the autonomy of school institutions, funding, supervision, and freedom of expression in coaching and in books. Our responses and examples in this communication are based on the effects of Human Rights Watch’s studies and analysis.
Autonomy of establishments (question 4)
Autonomy and self-government in educational institutions
Restrictions on police or military personnel entering educational institutions
Funding (questions 6, 7)
Monitoring (Question 8)
Surveillance in online learning
Freedom of expression at school and in books.
Freedom of expression in respect of hostilities between Israel and Palestine
Comprehensive Sexuality Education
[1] Michael Page (Human Rights Watch), “University of Toronto Leaders Attack Educational Freedom,” Human Rights Watch report, April 28, 2021, https://www. hrw. org/news/2021/ 04/28/ University of Toronto leadership attracts educational freedom.
[2] Lydia Gall (Human Rights Watch), “HungaryContins Attacks on Academic Freedom,” Human Rights Watch dispatch, September 3, 2020, https://www. hrw. org/news/2020/09/03/hungary- continues to attack educational freedom.
[3] Ibid. , “Central European University Opens Vienna Campus After Hungary Eviction,” Human Rights Watch dispatch, November 18, 2019, https://www. hrw. org/news/2019/11/18/central-european – University opens campus in Vienna after Hungary eviction; “Hungary Renews War on Academic Freedom,” Human Rights Watch dispatch, July 2, 2019, https://www. hrw. org/news/2019/07/02/hungary-renews-its-war-academic-freedom.
[4] At least thirteen teachers have been ignored since June 2022 under a May 2022 law extending the state of emergency due to the war in Ukraine. Edina Hajnal, “Hungary’s Revenge Bill Against Teachers, Students, and Parents,” Heinrich Böll Foundation, May 12, 2023, https://cz. boell. org/en/2023/05/12/hungarys-revenge-bill-Counter-Teachers (accessed January 22, 2024).
[5] Unless otherwise noted, all examples can be found in Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, “Protecting Schools from Military Use 2021: Law, Policy, and Military Doctrine,” October 2021, https://protectingeducation. org/wp-content/uploads/Protecting-Schools-from-Military-Use-2021. pdf (accessed January 9, 2024).
[6] Human Rights Watch, “Tanks on the Playground”: Attacks on Schools and Military Use of Schools in Ukraine (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2023), https://www. hrw. org/sites/default/files/media_2023/11/ukraine1123web_0. pdf.
[7] Within the Chinese Communist Party, a special segment called the United Front Work Department (UFWD) is guilty of organizing, representing and influencing major Chinese interest groups, adding that ethnic Chinese academics They have long been a target of the United Front, but in 2015, this scenario was reinforced when Xi Jinping designated them as “a new center of United Front work. ” See Human Rights Watch, “They Don’t Understand the Fear We Have”: How China’s Long Reach of Repression Undermines Academic Freedom at Australian Universities (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2021), https://www. hrw. org/ report/2021/06/30/they-dont-understand-fear-we-have/how-chinas-long-reach- saps of repression.
[8] Sophie Richardson (Human Rights Watch), “Dutch University Hit by Chinese Government Funding Scandal,” Human Rights Watch Dispatch, January 20, 2022, https://www. hrw. org/news/2022/01/20/-the-Dutch-University-Hit-the-Chinese-Government-Funding-Scandal.
[9] Human Rights Watch, “Resisting Chinese Government’s Efforts to Undermine Academic Freedom Abroad: A Code of Conduct for Colleges, Universities, and Academic Institutions Worldwide,” available at https://www. hrw. org/sites/ default/files. /supporting_resources/190321_china_academic_freedom_coc_0. pdf.
[10] For more details, see Human Rights Watch, “Russia: Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child,” December 21, 2023, https://www. hrw. org/news/2023/12/21/ Russia-submission-UN-committee-on-rights-of-the-child.
[11] “Australia: Beijing Threatens Educational Freedom,” Human Rights Watch press release, June 29, 2021, https://www. hrw. org/news/2021/06/30/australia-beijing-menacing-educational-freedom.
[12] Human Rights Watch, “They Don’t Understand the Fear We Have.”
[13] Sophie McNeill (Human Rights Watch), “How Australian Universities Are Working to Counter China’s Global Attacks on Academic Freedom,” ABC News, April 4, 2022, https://www. hrw. org/news/2022/04/04/how-Australian-universities-are-working-against-global-Chinese-academic-attacks.
[14] The conference, which is held annually, is organized through other universities throughout the year. Human Rights Watch, Speaking Out Is Dangerous: Criminalizing Peaceful Expression in Thailand (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2019), https://www. hrw. org /report/2019/10/25/speak-out-dangerous /criminalization-peaceful-expression-Thailand.
[15] Human Rights Watch, “How Dare They Peek into My Personal Life?Violations of Children’s Rights Through Governments Approving Online Learning During the Covid-19 Pandemic (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2022), https://www. hrw. org/report/2022/05/25/how-dare-they-peep-my-personal-life/childrens-rights-violations-governments.
[16] For more details, see ibid. , Section IV: Lack of Protection, “Children’s Data Protection Laws. “
[17] See Human Rights Watch, “Human Rights Watch Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy,” October 2020, https://www. hrw. org/news/2020/10/19/sumision-human – rights-watch-a-special-rapporteur-right-privacy.
[18] Movement Advancement Project (MAP), “Equality Maps: LGBTQ Curricular Laws” (webpage), https://www. lgbtmap. org/equality-maps/curricular_laws (accessed January 25, 2024). See Human Rights Watch, “Feminist Florida” blog, https://www. hrw. org/blog-feed/feminist-florida.
[19] Human Rights Watch, “United States: School Censorship Violates Basic Human Rights,” May 3, 2023, https://www. hrw. org/news/2023/05/03/us-school-censorship -violates- basic human rights.
[20] “Organizational Letter Approving the Freedom to Learn Campaign,” Human Rights Watch letter, May 3, 2023, https://www. hrw. org/news/2023/05/03/organizational-letter-endorsing-freedom Learning Campaign.
[21] For more details, see Human Rights Watch, “Russia: Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.”
[22] Human Rights Watch, “Schools Are Failing Children Too”: The Taliban’s Impact on Children’s Education in Afghanistan (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2023), https://www. hrw. org/report/2023/12/06/schools-too-are-failing-children/Taliban-impact-children-education-in-Afghanistan.
[23] Human Rights Watch, Meta’s Broken Promises: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content on Instagram and Facebook (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2023), https://www. hrw. org/report/2023/12/21/metas -broken-promises/systemic-censorship-palestine-content-instagram-and.
[24] Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Familie Berlin, Schreiben an alle Schulen des Landes Berlin im “Umgang mit Störungen des Schulfriedens im Zusammenhang mit dem Terrorangriff auf Israel”, October 13, 2023, https://www. tagesspiegel. de /berlin/downloads/umgang-mit-storungen-des-schulfriedens-im-zusammenhang-mit-dem-terrorrangriff-auf-israel (accessed January 22, 2024).
[25] See, for example, “U. S. Human Rights OrganizationU. S. Urges Schools to Relax Speech Amid Israel-Gaza War,” Al Jazeera, November 1, 2023, https://www. aljazeera. com/news/2023/11/1/ us-rights-organization-urges-schools-to-laose-speech-amid-gaza-war (accessed November 30, 2023), and Vima Patel and Anna Betts, “Campus Crackdown Has Chilling Effect on Pro-Palestinian Discourse,” New York Times, December 17, 2023, https://www. nytimes. com/2023/12/17/us/campus-crackdowns-have-chilling-effect-on-pro-palestinian-speech. html (accessed January 25, 2023). , 2024).
[26] Human Rights Watch, “Israel-Palestine Hostilities Affect Rights in Europe,” October 26, 2023, https://www. hrw. org/news/2023/10/26/israel-palestine-hostilities-affect-rights-Europe.
[27] Juedische Allgemeine, “Immer mehr Antisemitismus an Schulen und Unis,” December 10, 2023, https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/unsere-woche/immer-mehr-antisemitismus-an-schulen-und-unis/ (accessed January 31, 2024), and Jenny Barke, “Was tun gegen den Antisemitismus an Berliner Schulen?,” rbb24, October 10, 2023, https://www.rbb24.de/politik/beitrag/2023/10/nahost-konflikt-berlin-schule-kiga-vermittlung-antisemitismus.html (accessed January 31, 2024).
[28] For examples from other countries, see, for example, Human Rights Watch, No Support: Russia’s “Gay Propaganda” Law Imperils LGBT Youth (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2018), https://www. hrw. org/report/ 2018/12/12/no-support/russia-gay-propagananda-law-imperils-lgbt-youth; Cristian González Cabrera (Human Rights Watch), “Censorship of Sexual Schooling Is Not a ‘New Idea,'” El Mundo, October 11, 2022, https://www. hrw. org/news/2022/10/11/censoring – Sexuality Schooling Is Not a New Idea; “Poland: Bill Targeting Sex Ed Veto,” Human Rights Watch news release, December 8, 2022, https://www. hrw. org/news/2022/12/09/poland-veto-bill-targeting-sex-ed; and Ryan Thoreson, “UN firm urges South Korea to sex schooling,” Human Rights Watch dispatch, October 16, 2019, https://www. hrw. org/news/2019/10/16/un-body-urges South Korea -Improve-Sexuality-Education.
[29] See, for example, Mauricio Albarracín-Caballero (Human Rights Watch), “How Targeting LGBTQ Rights Are Part of the Authoritarian Playbook,” Advocate, September 6, 2022, https://www. hrw. org/news / 2022/06/09/how-targeting-lgbtq-rights-is-part-of-an-authoritarian-playbook.
[30] Human Rights Watch, “I Became Scared, This Was Their Goal”: Efforts to Ban Gender and Sexuality Education in Brazil (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2022), https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/05/12/i-became-scared-was-their-goal/efforts-ban-gender-and-sexuality-education-brazil.
[31] Defense Manual Against Censorship in Schools, 2022, available at https://manualdedefesadasescolas.org.br/ (accessed January 25, 2024).