In an interview with The Courier, two members of Amnesty UK’s Student Action Network Committee spoke about the context, importance, and goals of the prospective report and the Defend Dissent campaign. Both members are undergraduate students at Newcastle University.
On Wednesday 12 November, the charter was announced at the Defend Dissent Newcastle launch event, held at Tyneside Cinema. Attendees were invited to come forward and give their signature, and students were invited to volunteer as team leaders. These teams would form based on similar interests, all with the same goal of attaining more signatures. A chief goal is to have 800 supporters publicly backing the Defend Dissent campaign by the end of the year, said committee members from Amnesty UK’s Student Action Network Committee.
This is not limited to specific political movements
The event included speeches from students studying at Newcastle University, as well as volunteers at Amnesty International UK. Mariam Barghouti, an American-Palestinian writer, gave the keynote speech via video-call from the occupied West Bank.
She stated: “by protesting for Palestine, against apartheid, against ethnic cleansing, against genocide; you are protesting for yourself.” She continued: “first and foremost, to exercise your right to political engagement, to exercise your freedom of expression, and to be part of democratic values.”
This message was echoed by the members of the Student Action Network Committee: “this is not limited to specific political movements [...] this is something that concerns everyone, even if it is not on your radar now, it will be soon.”
I hope it doesn't scare people away because it gives them more details about what universities do
They continued by expressing their excitement about the scale of Amnesty International UK in today’s political climate, stating: “I hope [the scale of] it doesn’t scare people away because it gives them more details about what universities do [...] I hope it makes people angry enough to do something about it.”
The committee members, and students at Newcastle University, also spoke specifically about their first-hand experiences of protesting on campus as part of the encampment, and why Newcastle is named heavily in the report as one of the main case studies.
The encampment mentioned here refers to the eighty-two-day Newcastle Apartheid Off Campus encampment that began on May 1 2024, in response to the university’s investments in defence and security sector firms.
When asked for comment on Newcastle being named as one of the twenty-five universities listed in the report, a Newcastle University spokesperson said: “We recognise and uphold the fundamental right to freedom of speech within the law for our students and colleagues and seek to foster a culture where difficult issues can be challenged and analysed while accepting differences in views and opinion.”
“We support peaceful protest on campus so long as it is conducted within the law and our own regulations. We do not tolerate harassment, abuse, or criminal damage, and where individuals are identified as having breached our policies or codes of conduct, we will take appropriate action in line with our disciplinary procedures.”
“Our priority is to ensure that our campus is an inclusive and supportive environment where everyone feels safe, respected, and able to express their ideas, while also ensuring support is available for those affected by views they find hurtful or distressing.”
The Defend Dissent Charter consists of ten pledges which all work to ensure ‘freedom of expression, academic freedom, and the right to protest in universities’. These are available to read in full on Amnesty UK’s website. The members said: "The goal for next year is to have five universities across the country sign it."
How much discrimination are you going to allow to happen before you do something about it?
A final call to arms was then pushed by the members: “how much will you allow to happen, how much repression and how much discrimination are you going to allow to happen before you do something about it?”. A similar statement, echoed for importance, closed the interview: “even if it does not immediately affect you now, it will at some point."