Amnesty International USA and the American Civil Liberties Union this week launched a campaign for college and university students to help defend their campuses from the Trump administration’s attacks on free speech, academic freedom, and inclusive learning environments.
The Firewall for Freedom campus campaign includes a Campus Resolution Toolkit that guides students across the country to introduce and pass campus resolutions that call on their campus administrations to defend the rights of students and to refuse to voluntarily collaborate with the Trump administration’s attacks on human rights.
“Across the country, students are speaking out on urgent human rights issues including war and genocide, refugee and migrant rights, trans rights, racial justice, and reproductive rights,” said Tarah Demant, National Director of Programs with Amnesty International USA. “Their human right to express themselves must be protected by their college or university, but far too often we’ve seen student speech censored or students suspended, exposed to use of force by police, jailed, or even taken by ICE. This has to stop.”
The toolkit gives students the resources they need to create a Firewall for Freedom resolution and explains steps they can take to work with their student governments to pass one.
Establishing a firewall means that schools will not voluntarily share their resources – including their staff’s time or the data they collect on students and faculty – with federal law enforcement who are seeking to violate human rights or target members of school communities based on their exercise of human rights.
“No one should be punished for peaceful protest; no one should be threatened for exercising free speech; and no one should be deported for speaking out for human rights,” said Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the ACLU. “This toolkit is a way for students to push their schools to do the right thing and refuse to collaborate in the Trump administration’s attacks against students.”
The organizations are working with and distributing the toolkit to hundreds of student chapters and networks around the country. It is a resource for all students, and the organizations are providing support to groups who are working on resolutions.
“We refuse to be silent as we watch our human rights be attacked,” said Karina Kewlani, a student at the College of Charleston in South Carolina who is working to protect the right to protest on her campus. “We aren’t afraid to be bold and show how the strength and solidarity of students across the country will help ensure that our human rights continue to have a place on college campuses. What we’re asking is simple: our educational institutions must fight to protect our rights.”
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