Student rights are human rights
Today is International Human Rights Day. In recent years, attacks on higher education institutions, students’ rights and thus on education have increased. In Myanmar, 7 students have been sentenced to death, and the execution is supposed to happen today. Two days ago, thousands of students were poisoned in #Iran to stop them from partaking in protests, and especially girls and women are denied their right to education in Iran and #Afghanistan. In #Belarus, more than 60 students are still imprisoned. Russia’s war on Ukraine and other armed conflicts around the world are a danger to the lives and the right to education of young people around the world. The academic community, and students, in particular, are important accelerators of social change, whether in terms of the necessary socio-economic transformation of societies. They are often at the frontline of fighting for and defending human rights and democratic liberties within and outside of the higher education environment, making them targets of those to whom this is a thorn in the eye. It must be emphasised that all European countries and many more countries of the world have ratified various declarations and treaties recognising different human rights, with education being one of them. Therefore, European countries must guarantee that students have access to free and quality education and that student activism does not interfere with students’ educational pathways nor their right to life, liberty and security. For the European context, the European Students’ Union has developed a Charter of Students’ Rights and calls on the Council of Europe, the EU, the EHEA, nation-states and other policymakers to legally recognise students’ rights and anchor them in the European educational framework. To this end, we also call upon the European community to publicly condemn the barbarous acts against students worldwide and to take further actions.
https://esu-online.org/policies/student-rights-charter/
#InternationalHumanRightsDay #HumanRights #StudentsRightsCharta #Students
