Published on 29-10-2024, Last modified on 29-10-2024

Rights Bites: Responsibilities of Belgian Universities with regard to cooperation with Israeli Universities

Join us on November 12th for the new format of the HRRN lecture series, “Rights Bites.” This session features guest speakers Gamze Erdem Türkelli and Thalia Kruger from the University of Antwerp, who will engage in a discussion about the responsibilities of Belgian universities concerning their cooperation with Israeli universities. 

Registration: https://event.ugent.be/registration/rightsbitesnov

Belgian universities, like many universities in European and world-wide, have multiple cooperation agreements with Israeli universities. A part of this cooperation takes the form of agreements for student and staff exchange. Another part is collaboration in research projects, often funded by the European Union.

Israeli universities’ close ties with the State of Israel and complicity in its abuses of human rights and of international law has been sufficiently documented (e.g. Wind, 2024). These ties include the development of technologies and strategies to uphold the occupation. International law is clear that all States have an erga omnes obligation, i.e. an obligation towards everyone, to not commit and not be complicit in the violations of peremptory norms of international law,  or jus cogens, i.e. a norm from which no derogation is permitted. The aim of our presentation is to discuss the duties of universities within this legal framework. In Flanders (northern part of Belgium), an inter-university council has adopted a human-rights test for collaboration with foreign universities. At many Flemish universities, the collaboration with Israeli universities was one of the initial applications of this test. The test was conducted in the context of the human-rights violations in the Gaza Strip and occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel. The application of the test has caused tension and fierce opposition.

We argue that universities have a link to States and thus are also bound by obligations of human rights law and international law, in particular peremptory norms. Even if funders such as the EU do not act to discharge their duty under international law, universities should still do so.

Koen De Feyter was Professor of International Law and dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerpen until his untimely passing on 20 September 2024. He was a member and for many years spokesperson of the Law & Development Research Group. He was an expert on the right to development. He was also the instigator of a research cooperation agreement with the Muwatin Institute for Democracy and Human Rights of Birzeit University. That project is funded by ENABEL, the Belgian Development Agency.

Gamze Erdem Türkelli is Associate Research Professor at the Law & Development Research Group of the University of Antwerp. Her work is situated in the interface of international law, human rights law and sustainable development. She conducts research into transnational human rights obligations, hybrid public-private actors in international law such as multistakeholder partnerships, ‘innovative’ development financing, business & human rights, children’s rights as well as accountability and responsibility. She is the Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant 2023 funded GENESIS Project (www.genesis-erc.eu).

Thalia Kruger is Professor of Private International Law at the Law & Development Research Group of the University of Antwerp. Her interests are cross-border legal issues and the role the law can play to enhance or endanger the protection of human rights for people in marginalised positions. In this context she has worked in international family law as well as international contracts and international procedural law.

The discussion will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Jan Orbie, Ghent University, Department of Political Science.