Education International Research
the time of writing, teachers in Saint Lucia are currently without a collective agreement, even though SLTU178 has been requesting negotiations with the government since 2017. One hundred and fifty-five (155) countries have ratified ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise. Thirty-two (32) countries have not (of these, New Zealand, Oman, Palau and Tonga are submitting VNRs this year). However, trade union rights are still violated even in some countries that have ratified these crucial conventions. Sixteen per cent (16%) of respondents to the Status of Teachers survey reported that teachers in their country have limited, restricted, highly restricted or no freedom of association at all. Repression includes various forms of discrimination against trade unionists such as harassment, torture, imprisonment and even assassination in extreme cases. In the Philippines, ACT members have been harassed, labelled as terrorists and illegally profiled by the police. The union leaders have received death threats. In Iran, there have been systematic attacks on trade unionists, including imprisonment of teacher union leaders. The case study below (Box 14) shows how freedom of expression and union rights in Turkey have been forcefully undermined.
Box 14: Government Violation of Trade Union Rights and Educators’ Academic Freedom in Turkey In Turkey, violations of human and trade union rights have intensified following the adoption of the SDGs. Teachers and academics lack academic freedom, as those who oppose the government’s policies and aims for the education system are targeted and punished. Attacking the academic freedom and professional autonomy of teachers through spreading fear: mass teacher dismissals and imprisonment of academics In July 2016, there was an attempted coup in Turkey, which was blamed on the Hamihad movement associated with Muhammed Fethullah Gulen. As a result, a state of emergency was declared, and the Turkish government began to target and persecute any citizens who appeared to have Gulenist sympathies. According to Stevenson and Bascia,179 “Schools and universities with Gulenist links were closed down, and thousands of teachers and academics were dismissed and suspended. However, the reprisals went far beyond the Gulenist movement, and the coup has clearly been used as an opportunity to also attack those with a history of supporting oppositional political opinions, including many teachers and university academics. All of this has created a climate of mistrust and fear amongst Turkish teachers”.
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In July 2018, the state of emergency was lifted, but an anti-terrorism law was introduced, which meant that the “witch hunt”, as many deemed it, could continue. Since 2016, approximately 140,000 public servants have been dismissed. There is now an Inquiry Commission in place to deal with appeals against unfair dismissals. Over 125,000 people made appeals, but 93.24% of the appeals were rejected.180 As of April 2019, only 37 teachers had gotten their jobs back. In 2016, six months before the attempted coup, 1,128 academics published a declaration stating “We will not be party to this crime” 181 on behalf of the Academics for Peace Initiative (the petition has now reached 2,212 signatures). It calls on the Turkish government to end state violence and demands immediate peace in the southeast of the country. Lawsuits were filed against all 1,128 academics for “propagandising for a terrorist organisation”. Many are still embroiled in court cases, whilst all those who have already stood trial were sentenced to prison sentences ranging from 15 months to over three years.
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178 St. Lucia Teachers’ Union 179 Bascia, N. and Stevenson, H. 2017. Organising Teaching: Developing the Power of the Profession. Education International. Retrieved from: https://download.ei-ie. org/Docs/WebDepot/Research_institute_mobilising_final.pdf 180 Statistics from Amnesty campaign. See: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2018/10/turkey-purged-beyond-return/ 181 Read the full declaration here: http://bianet.org/english/human-rights/170978-academics-we-will-not-be-a-party-to-this-crime
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