Universities as Emerging Human Rights Duty-Bearers: Balancing Institutional Human Rights Responsibility with Academic Freedom

Published March 2026

By Wouter Vandenhole

Institutional neutrality is often assumed to be the best guarantor for academic freedom. This paper argues that institutional neutrality is not an option. As emerging human rights duty-bearers, universities must assume institutional human rights responsibility. Institutional human rights responsibility also includes a responsibility for academic freedom of students and staff. The question is therefore not whether but how to reconcile institutional human rights responsibility in e.g. procurement, investment and partnerships with business and other universities across the world, with the academic freedom of own students and staff. Universities’ human rights responsibility towards distant strangers and towards members of their own academic community must be reconciled rather than pitted against each other.