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The Undersigned, guided by the rules and guiding principles contained in the Lima

Declaration on Academic Freedom and Autonomy of Institutions of Higher Education,

Unesco Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers in Higher Education, the

National Constitution and the Universities Law, consider that:

1. The Agreement ignores the university autonomy when it suggests an alleged

transformation of universities to be performed by state agencies; when it mentions a

supposed 'real university' that can only be partial and excluding and when it requests a

judicial intervention with no respect for legal procedures. The Agreement ignores that the

figure of the Educational State (Estado docente) cannot be invoked to justify the violation

of the university autonomy and academic freedom and research. The agreement ignores that

the State has an obligation to protect higher education institutions from threats made

against their autonomy, regardless of their origin.

2. The Agreement ignores academic freedom and freedom of thought and expression when

it criminalizes the plurality of ideas by stating that "public universities are abducted by

forces of different signs"; when it criminalizes criticism and the right to dissent by accusing

the universities of "generating processes of insubordination to the law and of supporting

unconstitutional and violent outings against the democratically elected government". The

Agreement ignores the fact that higher education institutions have a moral and legal duty to

denounce political repression and human rights violations precisely in the society in which

they are embedded.

3. The Agreement ignores that the right to quality education enshrined in Article 103 of

the Constitution can only be fully realized in an environment of freedom and autonomy.

4. The Agreement ignores labor rights and the rights of association and assembly as it

hints that the university crisis is "a policy of the Venezuelan opposition" and when it

demands the penalization of the legitimate protests by university workers with the "no

cancellation of wages and salaries". The Agreement ignores labor rights are inalienable and

that any action, agreement or convention involving a waiver or undermining of these rights

is void.

5. The Agreement ignores it is a State obligation to invest in education, and it should book

an appropriate proportion of the national budget to fully ensure the right to education. This

is not a discretionary giving.

6. The Agreement ignores the fact that the State has the obligation to respect civil and

cultural, political, social and economic rights of university personnel, recognized in

international declarations and covenants, and that each member of the university

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community has the right to enjoy the freedoms of thought, conscience, expression,

assembly, association and the right to personal liberty and security.

7. The Agreement ignores the principles of proportionality and fairness by accusing and

subjecting to public derision the authorities, university councils and professors associations

of autonomous universities.

We are concerned that authorities of various branches of the government have been

incurring, for years, in a systematic pattern of violations of the autonomy, academic

freedom and civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of university personnel,

through the imposition of laws, regulations, conventions, enrollment policies and teacher

training systems, all of which are unconstitutional as well as suppressing the right of the

university personnel to peaceful demonstration, decent wage and working conditions. Thus,

there has been an attempt to replace the model of free, rational and critical confrontation of

ideas by a single model, undemocratic and vertical thinking that threatens the very

existence of a free, pluralistic and quality university along with the production of

knowledge, development and future of the country.

We demand that the interference, harassment and offensive towards autonomous public

universities come to a halt.

Cátedra de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Centro Occidental Lisandro Alvarado

(UCLA)

Centro para la Paz y los Derechos Humanos “Padre José María Olaso” de la Universidad

Central de Venezuela (UCV)

Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (CDH-UCAB)

Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad de Margarita (UNIMAR)

Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la

Universidad del Zulia (LUZ)

GTAI (Grupo de Trabajo sobre Asuntos Indígenas de la Universidad de Los Andes) (ULA)

Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad de Los Andes (ULA)

Unidad de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Metropolitana (UNIMET)

Acción Solidaria (AcSol)

Asociación Civil Fuerza, Unión, Justicia, Solidaridad y Paz (FUNPAZ A.C)

Centro de Justicia y Paz (CEPAZ)

CIVILIS Derechos Humanos

Comisión para los Derechos Humanos del Estado Zulia (CODHEZ)

Comisión de Derechos Humanos y Ciudadanía (CODEHCIU), Guayana

Comisión de Derechos Humanos de Justicia y Paz del estado Aragua

Movimiento Vinotinto

Observatorio Venezolano de Prisiones (OVP) Padres Organizados de Venezuela

Programa Venezolano de Educación – Acción en Derechos Humanos (PROVEA)

Sociedad Hominis Iura (SOHI)

Unión Afirmativa de Venezuela