Passed by:The Big Meeting
Passed on: 09/03/2026
Policy lapses: 09/03/2029
Status: We are working on it
Summary
We are seeking to adopt Amnesty UK’s Defend Dissent charter into the Students’ Union policy to protect academic freedom, freedom of expression, and the right to protest.
Details
We are hoping to tackle the issues around free speech, right to protest, and academic freedom on campus by adopting Amnesty UK’s Defend Dissent charter into the Students’ Union constitution. The charter includes provisions intended to accomplish each of the following: guarantees freedom of expression and assembly, scrapping restrictive protest rules, ending the misuse of disciplinary actions, ending intrusive monitoring and data sharing, avoiding discrimination, confronting Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, being transparent and accountable, creating an independent mechanism for accountability, establishing appropriate services for students at risk, and acting when freedom of expression is threatened. By adopting the Defend Dissent charter, the Students’ Union will mitigate risks of potential censorship and will be accountable to the student body in the case of crisis or censorship.
Submitted by: Samuel McCarthy Vicente
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