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, contribute to the society, and support its progress.
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 knowledge from opinions and beliefs. It allows to confront theories and opinions to factual evidences, critical thinking, logics, and reasoning. It enables to develop sound, useful, and reliable knowledge anchored in the reality, that is free from cognitive, religious, and political biases.
This Charter outlines fundamental principles to preserve, support, and develop academic freedom.
Academic freedom requires:
- Right to knowledge and information
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. - Freedom of teaching
Universities 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. - Right to intellectual freedom
Universities and professors shall support intellectual freedom, independence, critical sense, and objectivity in academic research and teaching. - Right to pluralistic views
Universities shall ensure and encourage pluralism and diversity of views. - Right to mutual respect and Golden rule
Universities shall require and enforce mutual respect by all students. They shall teach the principle of the golden rule (Do not do to other what you would not like others to do to you) and request the other students to respect it too. They shall prevent any personal harassment. - Freedom of thoughts and critical thinking
Universities shall respect and protect freedom of thoughts and encourage each and every individual to develop original ideas, reasoning, and opinions without group or social pressure. Universities shall encourage and develop the ability to question assumptions and opinions by confronting them against facts, logics, and coherent reasoning. - Freedom of expression
Universities 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. - Right to question and to respectful debates
Universities 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. - Duty to deliver comprehensive knowledge
Universities and professors shall ensure open and comprehensive teaching of disciplines, by presenting the various models and theories recognised by the state of the art. - Duty to distinguish knowledge from opinions and beliefs
Academic environment 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. - Duty to raise awareness on cognitive biases
Universities and professors shall raise awareness on cognitive biases and mitigate their influence. - Impartiality and equality of treatment
Universities and professors shall ensure impartiality and equality of treatment. - Prohibition of hate and discrimination
Universities shall require interpersonal respect and prohibit hate, discrimination, and personal harassment. - Prohibition of all forms of personal threats or aggression
Universities shall refuse and sanction any use of threats, insults, or personal attacks. - Duty of excellence
Universities 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 an selection should be based on criteria aiming at academic excellence, including when recruiting and promoting professors, delivering education, assessing academic work, and reviewing publications. - Duty of independence
Universities 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. - Duty to support independent research
Universities and professors shall support and facilitate researches and preserve their impartiality from any religious, political, or economic influence. - Duty to value knowledge and academic freedom
Universities shall promote the importance of knowledge and academic freedom towards the professors, the students, and the public at large. - Duty to share knowledge
Universities shall promote knowledge access and sharing. - Duty to preserve and transmit knowledge
Universities shall promote comprehensive knowledge conservation, access, and transmission to the future generations.