Closure of the works of experts on the promotion of a measure concerning Academic Freedom in Arab Universities
Participate in the expert meetings which was conducted during the 23rd and 24th September, 2013 clarify that the topic of Academic Freedom means the ability to teaching and conducting research and studies, and to explore the facts and profess it and sorted out and test hypotheses and develop theories and tested, and the development of creativity through education and learning, and dissemination of invention through communication with the community and responding to the needs of physical and spiritual in the context of the development of societies and the Arab countries.
The participants of the meeting worked together trying to think new theories on the ground of scientific methodology to promote new a measure on Academic Freedoms in Arab Universities linked to the principles of the Amman Declaration for Academic Freedoms (ADAF) and the Lima Declaration for Academic Freedoms (LiDAF).
The Participants in the meeting adapt the questioner to measure the perceptions of both the professors and the students in six of the Arab countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Iraq and Yemen).
These were the conclusions of the two days meeting organized by the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies(ACHRS), in cooperation with the Foundation for the Future(FFF) and with the participation of 14 Academies from seven Arab Countries.
The Amman Center for Human Rights Studies has been involved in this topic since 2004.
In particular, over the past nine years, the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies hosted four conferences concerning Academic Freedoms in Arab Universities, it created the Observatory for Academic Freedom in Arab Universities Website (www.afwinfo.com), and established the Arab Society for Academic Freedom. In addiction, the center has issued four books specialized in academic freedom topic, an annual report.
In 2008 it prepared a study on Academic Freedoms in Jordanian Universities, and in 2012 a study on Academic Freedoms in Jordanian| Universities in collaboration with National Centre for Human Rights(NCHR) and the Raul Weinberg Institute (RWI).
Finally ACHRS in cooperation with Foundation for the Future (FFF) will conduct the fifth conference on academic freedoms in the Arab universities in the second half of December 2013, with participation of 40-50 academies from Arab and Foreign countries.
