Passed Policies and Progress

SAUWS Notes: 1. The Right to Education is a human right enshrined in Article 26 of the UN declaration of human rights. 2. The current situation in Palestine is one of military occupation resulting in severe movement restrictions for students and staff due to hundreds of Israeli army checkpoints, the apartheid wall, illegal settlements, areas of land completely closed to Palestinians and a network of Israeli-only roads. 3. The Right 2 Education (R2E) campaign, organised by students at BirZeit University in occupied Palestine, seeks to document research and raise awareness about the issues facing Palestinian students, teachers and the academic institutions under Israeli militant occupation and build an international movement in support of their rights. 4. That many other student associations across the UK are affiliated to the R2E campaign, as well as being “twinned” with Universities in Palestine. 5. That the president-elect plans to attend Palestine and also BirZeit University in the summer of 2013. 6. That very few students understand or know about the apartheid system being implemented within Palestine. SAUWS Resolves: 1. To participate within the parameters of charitable status and financial constraints in the annual Right 2 Education week (November) by organising events, as well as providing information and details of other events happening, in conjunction with R2E week/campaign. 2. To incorporate the Right 2 Education campaign into existing SAUWS campaigns and listed on the website under "Campaigns" as "Palestinian Right 2 Education campaign" . 3. Work with any Students who wish to do so to re-publish articles and reports from Palestinian, Israeli and International human rights organisations that centre on or cover the issue of education on the SAUWS website. 4. To look into the possibility of implementing a “twinning” policy with the student association of BirZeit University in the near future. 5. To put up a small gallery and informative area about; the situation in Palestine and what the R2E campaign seeks to do, in order to inform students of the issue.

SAUWS Believes: 1. All people should have the Right to Education and for that right to be meaningful education must be; Accessible, Available, Acceptable and Adaptable as articulated by the UN. 2. That education under military occupation as in the Palestinian case fails these conditions and that the Israeli military occupation due to the physical barriers listed above denies, impinges and infringes on the Palestinians' Right to Education. 3. The R2E campaign is a grassroots and student-led campaign with no resource- related preconditions on affiliation and there will be no detriment to SAUWS’s resources or associated risks by this affiliation. 4. UWS rightfully should pride itself on being an internationally engaged university and SAUWS therefore has a key role in helping the university promote equality, diversity, human rights and global justice. 5. In a globalised world those who are privileged enough to have their Right to Education should support the Right to Education in other parts of world and raise awareness of the denial of this Right in solidarity with student-initiated campaigns such the R2E campaign in Occupied Palestine.

Originally passed December 2018.

.