Global IssuesRIGHTS: Ivory Tower Not Always a Safe Haven
Universities are places for teaching, studying and learning, but for a prominent scholar in Belarus, researching and publishing on topics that the government considered unpopular led to a progression of abuse that began with being snubbed by academic conferences and isolated at the university and ended with his termination and even death threats.
According to the Institute for International Education (IIE), his story is not unique.
This week, the IIE released a report examining the persecution faced by academic scholars worldwide. The report is based on data from the first five years of operation of the IIE Scholarship Rescue Fund, a programme to provide grants and safe haven to threatened scholars.
'This is not a report on academic freedom. It is about scholars being jailed, tortured and threatened with assassination,' said the fund's chairman Henry Jarecki at a United Nations University presentation of the report on Tuesday, 'Academics Under Threat'.
'I thought it would just be about academic freedom, but it turned out to be about the physical danger these people are in,' he said.
Since its launch in 2002, the fund has received 847 applications for its one- and two-year grants from academics all over the globe who feel they are being oppressed for their academic views or research. The 140 grants awarded went to scholars from 38 countries on every continent but North America and Australia, and came from all academic levels representing all fields of study.
Recipients are able to continue their research and teach at safe host institutions for the duration of the grant, at the end of which some return home but most acquire jobs at foreign universities.
'The rescue of scholars is the rescue of knowledge for the betterment of us all,' said Jarecki.
Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation, which funded the report, added, 'The contributions of scholars rescued from the fascists in WWII is immeasurable.' He noted that 12 of these rescued scholars went on to win Nobel Prizes.
Since 2002, the majority of recipients came from Iraq, Iran and Ethiopia, and eight of the top 10 countries with recipients were from the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia. Colombia and Belarus also appeared in the top 10 countries.
However, regional data was mixed as other countries in those regions have worked closely with the IIE to help fund scholars leave their countries. The report singled out Jordan as a key player in the rescue and harbour of threatened scholars.
Jarecki even joked that he wished the fund had allies in the U.S. State Department as loyal as a certain princess in Jordan, who offered her private car to retrieve detained scholars in Iraq.
Jarecki, who is himself an academic refugee from Nazi Germany, emphasised the analytical aspect of the report, which seeks to find similarities among countries that repress scholars.
According to the report the top five factors in repressive countries are low GDP, high World Bank instability rating, low overall academic population, a high rating on the Fund for Peace’s Failed State Index and geography, though when factoring all others out the latter was found to be statistically insignificant.
The report also aggregated the data by the source of the repression, and while many groups were found to be responsible in different areas, such as rebel groups, religious institutions and terrorists, by far the most frequent culprit was government.
'There are a lot of reasons for this government oppression, like a professor talking about sensitive issues or researching unpopular topics, but in many cases it was simply anti-intellectual populism,' said Jarecki.
The data from the report was gathered by examining the 847 applications for the grant between 2002 and 2007, but questions remain about the accuracy of that data, considering a lack of information in many areas or restricted ability of individuals to apply.
IIE president Allan Goodman was especially concerned with the lack of applicants from North Korea. When asked if there were any areas where he felt there was repression not reflected in the report he replied, 'North Korea, North Korea, North Korea.'
Goodman went as far as to advocate regime change in the East Asian state as the only solution to academic repression there, but despite his former job as chief of the CIA’s presidential briefing staff, Goodman told IPS that IIE 'is completely non-partisan' and has no political affiliations.
Goodman also acknowledged that there are threatened academics in more developed countries as well, despite the report’s focus on low-GDP countries.
'There is a problem in rich countries too,' he said. 'Often they solve their issues in other ways, like giving in to pressure and silencing their views or relocating.' He noted that 1,800 academics in the U.S. reported having their academic freedoms infringed upon in 2007 alone.
The report made some suggestions for moving forward, such as an international convention of oppressed scholars to raise awareness of the issue, which the report says goes largely unnoticed even within the academic community.
Gregorian suggested a form of U.N. passport to allow free travel around the world and facilitate the free movement of ideas, saying, 'Freedom to learn, freedom of thought and freedom of speech must be sacrosanct.'
© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service