Academic Leaders Protest Serbian Government Assault on Universities -- HRW Letter

The Honorable Milan Milutinovic
President, Republic of Serbia
Belgrade, Yugoslavia

Dear President Milutinovic:

On behalf of the Human Rights Watch Academic Freedom Committee, a group of scholars and academic leaders organized in 1991 to protest restrictions on academic freedom and abuse of the basic rights of educators and students worldwide, we are writing this open letter to express our grave concern over the assault on university autonomy and academic freedom currently underway in Serbia.

On May 26, 1998, the Serbian parliament passed a new law, the University Act, giving the Serbian government broad new powers over public universities in Serbia. The law was published in the official gazette of the Republic of Serbia and signed into law on May 28, 1998. The University Act abolishes the autonomy of the universities:

• The law authorizes the government to appoint university rectors and faculty deans without input from professors or other members of the academic community (Article 108; Article 123, Para. 2).

• The law strips professors and other teaching staff of the right to propose members of university and faculty-level governing and supervisory boards, the membership of which is determined by the government (Articles 128, 131). Although faculty governing boards continue to include places reserved for professors and students, such individuals are appointed by the government and can be removed by the government.

• The law authorizes the government to shut down public universities at its discretion (Article 18, Para. 2).

  The University Act also abrogates existing contracts of teaching staff, including the contracts of tenured faculty members:

• The law requires that all professors and other teaching staff sign new employment contracts. Article 165 of the law states: "Employees of the University who have begun employment up to the date of entry into force of this law are obliged to conclude a labor contract within 60 days of the entry into force of this Law."

  The precise implications of Article 165 are unclear. Although the University Act does not expressly declare existing contracts null and void, or provide for specific penalties for those who refuse to sign new contracts, there is widespread fear among faculty members that government-appointed deans will interpret the new law aggressively and take punitive measures against those who do not sign. Since the law was passed, hundreds of professors have signed declarations opposing the law and stating that they will not sign new contracts while their existing contracts are still in effect. Many academics have compared the new contract requirement to an oath of loyalty to the existing government. The sixty-day period specified in the law expired on August 5, 1998. At the time this letter was prepared, the fate of professors who had refused to sign new contracts was still uncertain.

  Since the adoption of the University Act, administrators deemed "unsuitable" by the government have been replaced at universities across Serbia. Not all new administrators have cracked down on perceived political enemies among faculty and staff, but the broad powers given them under the new law invite such arbitrary exercise of power. The most dramatic changes under the new law have taken place at the University of Belgrade, which in recent years has been a center of student protest and is home to a number of prominent faculty critics of the current Yugoslav and Serbian governments.

  The law has had the following consequences at the University of Belgrade:

• Of thirty deans of faculty at the University of Belgrade, sixteen have been replaced even though the terms for which they had been elected had not expired. Four of the sixteen themselves resigned in protest against the new law (Marija Bogdanovic, Fedor Zdanski, Ivan Juranic, Zoran Kadelburg). All four had participated in protests in 1996-97 against what they believed were rigged elections and the rector's support of police measures against student demonstrators. Of the twelve deans who were removed by the government, at least half had taken part in the 1996-97 protests. None of the replaced deans, however, were members of political parties. By contrast, fifteen of the sixteen newly appointed deans are members of the ruling parties. In addition, Mr. Jagos Puric, the newly appointed rector of the university, was formerly a prominent member of the communist party and is now a member of the Yugoslav Left (JUL), a party led by Mira Markovic, the wife of Yugoslav President Slobodon Milosevic.

• At least thirteen politicians influential in Serbia's ruling coalition – comprised of JUL (see above), the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), and the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) – were named to the governing and supervisory boards of the university and its component faculties. Goran Matic and Leposava Milicevic, high-ranking members of JUL, were appointed to the governing board of the university. Vojislav Seselj, president of the ultra-nationalist SRS, now sits on the governing board of the university as well as the governing boards of the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Economics. Another SRS leader, Aleksandar Vucic, now sits on the governing boards of the university and the Faculty of Philosophy. Branislav Ivkovic, a high-ranking member of the SPS, was named to the governing board of the university, as was his colleague Goran Percevic, vice-president of the SPS. Other influential members of the ruling parties named to one or more governing boards include: Milovan Bojic, Ivan Markovic, Radoman Bozovic, Srdjan Smiljkovic, Goran Trivan, Milos Aleksic, and Zivorad Djordjevic.

• At the Faculty of Philology, the government appointed Prof. Radmilo Marojevic, a member of the SRS and a junior professor of Russian, as the new dean. At a press conference on July 11, 1998, Marojevic stated that professors in his faculty were not doing "useful work." In subsequent weeks, he announced that professors could not take their holiday leave until after August 6, the deadline under the University Act for all professors to sign new employment contracts. Marojevic also interpreted the requirement that professors sign new employment contracts broadly, stating: "It is not only a question of whether a professor or associate wants to sign the contract, but whether I, as the Dean of the Faculty, who defends the interests of the Republic of Serbia and its scholarship and education in this case, shall want to sign it." Marojevic decided that Professor Ranko Bugarski, a renowned professor of linguistics and a prominent and influential critic of the nationalist policies of the government, was no longer eligible to work at the university because he had reached the retirement age of sixty-five. Professor Bugarski, however, had signed a new two-year contract under the former dean in May 1998 and the Serbian Labor Relations Act expressly authorizes such an extension. Marojevic also has announced his intention to disband the Department of World Literature. The current head of the department, Professor Vladeta Jankovic, is prominent in the opposition. Many of Marojevic's policies are being challenged by professors and have not yet been implemented, but the broad power given to government-appointed university officials under the new law invites those kinds of policies.

• At the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the newly appointed dean, Vlada Teodosic, issued a decision on July 8, 1998 stripping Professor Slavoljub Marjanovic, an internationally respected scientist, of "all rights and obligations . . . for the subjects of Electronics I and II." The action against Prof. Marjanovic appears to have been taken in retaliation for his opposition to the changes taking place under the new law. On the acknowledgments page of his recently issued textbook on electronics, Prof. Marjanovic, who already had been threatened with suspension by the new dean, stated that he was omitting the names of his colleagues to save them from potential harassment by the new faculty authorities. He was relieved of teaching duties shortly thereafter. The new dean also appointed Milos Laban as a new associate professor. Mr. Laban, an unsuccessful candidate of the SPS in parliamentary elections in 1990 and 1992, had been refused such an appointment by the academic council of the faculty prior to the government takeover. Because of the powers granted him under the new law, the new dean was free to ignore the prior recommendation of faculty members.

• Prof. Vladimir Stambuk, a member of the directorate of JUL and new dean at the Faculty of Political Science, announced that he would review all teaching appointments made in the last twenty years and refuse to sign contracts with "those who have not been adequate for their jobs."

• In the days immediately before and after the passage of the University Act, the government cracked down hard on demonstrations protesting the law. The most brutal crackdown occurred on May 26, 1998, the day the law was passed by the Serbian parliament, when anti-riot police moved in on approximately 1,500 protesting students, professors, and citizens. At least ten students and professors required medical attention after the assault. Another student demonstration protesting the law was violently dispersed on June 2, 1998. Both demonstrations reportedly had been nonviolent. The government claims that the protesters lacked proper permits for the rallies.

  <\ul> The developments described above constitute an unprecedented assault on academic freedom and the autonomy of Serbian universities, a principle established in Serbia nearly two centuries ago. Academic excellence requires that decisions affecting teaching, scholarship, and research be made on the basis of academic merit, not political favoritism or ideological litmus tests. The danger of the new law is that such decisions have been put into the hands of government-appointed officials, with no participation by faculty members, apart from a handful of faculty members selected by the government. Even during the Nazi occupation of Serbia in the early 1940s, the ruling authorities were required by law to consider proposals from the professorate before appointing university and faculty leaders.

  Government officials and university administrators close to the government have attempted to justify the government's de facto takeover of the universities by stating that higher education in Serbia has become inefficient because some faculty are not fulfilling their responsibilities, and by insisting that the universities must be forcefully "de-politicized" because faculty are spending too much of their time engaging in opposition political activities. Neither of these rationales supports the actions taken by the Serbian government.

  First, whatever the motives of the government in passing the University Act, the new law removes existing safeguards for academic autonomy and thus opens the door to political meddling in academic affairs by both present and future governments of Serbia. In principle, the university is an institution open to all on the basis of merit, and should serve as an important intellectual resource not only to governments and industry, but also to individuals and interests independent of the state. The University Act, however, appears to be turning universities into institutions that exclusively serve the interests of Serbian state authorities.

  Second, if university officials believe that professors or other teaching staff are not fulfilling their responsibilities, they should proceed against such individuals on a case-by-case basis according to the terms of existing employment contracts and, where applicable, existing guarantees of tenure. Such proceedings should be adjudicated by an impartial arbiter, giving the individual professor or teacher involved every opportunity to defend himself or herself according to recognized principles of contract law and due process.

  Finally, the exercise by professors of their rights as citizens to express their views should not be the cause for their dismissal or any other form of retaliation against them. As advocates of human rights and academic freedom, it is not our intention to support or dispute the opinions, ideas, or research findings of the academics and students whose cases we discuss. It is, however, a central feature of our mandate to defend their right to express their views and to study, research, teach, and publish without interference.

  The Serbian government's academic justification for its assault on the universities is pernicious. Experience has repeatedly demonstrated that academic freedom – and the spirit of critical inquiry it embodies – cannot flourish where members of the academic community must fear censorship and politically motivated reprisals for expression of their views. To the extent that the University Act authorizes government-appointed university administrators to remove or otherwise sanction faculty members who have been critical of the government or active in the opposition, it violates internationally recognized human rights law, depriving such professors of their rights to free expression, association, and assembly.

  As set forth in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), of which Yugoslavia is a signatory, freedom of expression "shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds." Articles 21 and 22 of the ICCPR guarantee "the right of peaceful assembly" and "the right to freedom of association with others," respectively. These freedoms are essential preconditions to academic excellence. A university fulfills its mission when academics are not forced to support an official line, an economic agenda, or a political ideology, but rather are free to use their talents to advance human knowledge and understanding. Freedom of expression, association, and assembly are also core civil and political rights essential to citizen autonomy. There can be no liberty and no meaningful citizenship where individuals can lose their livelihood for peacefully expressing their views or participating in political associations not favored by the authorities.

  We respectfully urge the Serbian government to repeal the University Act, restore the autonomy of universities in Serbia, and guarantee the right of students and professors to exercise their rights of free expression, association, and assembly without fear of reprisal. Professors and other teaching staff who have refused to sign new employment contracts while their existing contracts are still in effect should under no circumstances be removed from their positions or otherwise be penalized for their principled stance.

  Thank you for your consideration of these important matters. We look forward to your reply.

  Sincerely yours,

  /s/ Yuri Orlov
  Human Rights Watch Academic Freedom Committee
  Senior Scientist, Cornell University

  /s/ Jonathan F. Fanton
  Co-Chair, Human Rights Watch Academic Freedom Committee
  President, New School for Social Research

  cc: The Honorable Mirko Marjanovic, Prime Minister, Republic of Serbia
  The Honorable Dragan Tomic, President of Parliament, Republic of Serbia
  The Honorable Jovo Todorovic, Minister of Education, Republic of Serbia
  The Honorable Slobodon Milosevic, President, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
  

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