Academic Freedom Charter

Academic freedom is a fundamental right and a key requirement for the development of open and democratic societies. It aims at developing and sharing knowledge. It also aims at developing intellectual skills enabling individuals to think by themselves and to contribute to the progress of society.

Academic freedom is indissociable from the freedom of expression enshrined in article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right of access to information recognised by the UNESCO and the World Summit on the Information Society, and the UN Sustainable Development Goal 16 to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Academic freedom is essential to differentiate and separate knowledge from opinions and beliefs. It allows to confront theories and assumptions to factual evidence, critical thinking, logics, and reasoning. It enables to develop reliable knowledge, free from cognitive, religious, and political biases.

This International Academic Freedom Charter outlines fundamental principles to preserve, support, and reinforce academic freedom. It can be freely reused and endorsed by any academic institution.

The term “Academic institutions” refers to universities and other academic centres, such as research centres and programmes, as well as their professors, researchers and employees.

Academic freedom requires:

1. Right to intellectual freedom 
   All students, researchers, and professors shall have the right to free and uncensored access to knowledge and information. Universities and professors shall refuse any censorship with regards to access to facts, knowledge, and publications.
2. Freedom of teaching
   Academic institutions shall protect freedom of teaching and preserve it from any religious or political pressure or censorship. Professors shall be assessed according to academic criteria and requirements. They shall be protected against any political, religious, or social pressure.
3. Right to intellectual freedom
   Universities and professors shall support intellectual freedom, independence, critical sense, and objectivity in academic research and teaching.
4. Freedom of thoughts  
   Academic institutions shall respect and protect freedom of thoughts and encourage every individual to develop original ideas, reasoning, and opinions without group or social pressure.
5. Freedom of expression 
   Academic institutions shall respect and protect freedom of expression, including the right to question, comment, and criticise statements, publications, theories, and models, as well as political and religious ideologies. Freedom of expression shall not be used to promote ideologies that intend to limit individual rights and freedom or to promote hate or discrimination. 
6. Freedom of teaching
   
   Universities shall protect freedom of teaching and preserve it from any religious or political pressure or censorship. Professors shall be assessed exclusively according to academic criteria and requirements. They shall be preserved from any political, religious, and social pressure.
7. Right to question and to engage in respectful debates
   Academic institutions shall encourage questioning and discussing any topic in a courteous manner, by confronting it to the facts, logics, and reasoning. Universities shall develop the ability to listen to diverse points of view and allow everybody to develop its own and free personal opinion without group or social pressure.
8. Right to mutual respect and Golden rule
   Academic institutions shall require and enforce mutual respect by all students. They shall teach and request all students to respect the golden rule principle: “Do not do to other what you would not like others to do to you”. They shall prevent any personal harassment.
9. Right to impartiality and equality of treatment
   Academic institutions shall ensure impartiality and equality of treatment with the students.
10. Duty of excellence
    Academic institutions shall promote excellence in research and education. Teaching positions shall be allocated on the basis of intellectual and academic excellence through a formal and impartial process. Assessment and selection should be based on criteria aiming at academic excellence, including when recruiting and promoting professors, delivering education, assessing academic work, and reviewing publications.
11. Duty to deliver comprehensive knowledge
    Academic institutions shall ensure open and comprehensive teaching of disciplines, by presenting the various models and theories recognised by the state of the art.
12. Duty to distinguish knowledge from opinions and beliefs
    Academic institutions shall teach the basis of epistemology, including how to distinguish knowledge (anchored in the reality) from opinions and beliefs (based on subjective perception and representation of the reality by each individual). Teaching shall distinguish facts from theories and opinions.
13. Duty to develop critical thinking
    Academic institutions shall encourage and develop critical thinking, including the ability to question assumptions and opinions by confronting them to facts, logics, and coherent reasoning.
14. Duty to raise awareness on cognitive biases
    Academic institutions shall raise awareness on cognitive biases and mitigate their influence.
15. Duty of independence
    Academic institutions shall provide a learning environment free from any political and religious pressure, proselytizing, or instrumentation. Authorities, heads of universities, professors, and researchers shall preserve universities against any political or religious influence on the substance of teaching and research. They shall support and facilitate research and preserve their impartiality from any religious, political, or economic influence. 
16. Duty to value knowledge and academic freedom
    Academic institutions shall promote the importance of knowledge and academic freedom towards the professors, the students, and the public at large.
17. Duty to create and share knowledge
    Academic institutions shall contribute to create knowledge and share it.
18. Duty to preserve and transmit knowledge
    Academic institutions shall collect and preserve knowledge for the future generations.
19. Prohibition of all forms of personal threats or aggression
    Academic institutions shall refuse and sanction any use of threats, insults, or personal attacks.
20. Prohibition of hate and discrimination
    Academic institutions shall require interpersonal respect and prohibit hate, discrimination, and personal harassment.