Viviana Fernandez
@vfernand1217.bsky.social
Associate Director, Human Rights Research and Education Centre
(@uottawahrrec.bsky.social) at uOttawa. Advocate, ally, wife and mother.
(@uottawahrrec.bsky.social) at uOttawa. Advocate, ally, wife and mother.
Pinned
Quebec universities weather an unprecedented storm - University Affairs
The province’s institutes of higher learning are navigating immigration restrictions, language policies, budget cuts and challenges to academic freedom.
universityaffairs.ca
..."academic freedom is a defining value not only of academia, but of democracy. That makes it worthy of our attention... Politicians defining what academic freedom looks like seems a bit contradictory”... universityaffairs.ca/features/que...
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
Le dernier rapport Free to Think de Scholars at Risk met en evidence les menaces à la liberté académique dans le monde entier, recensant 328 cas avérés d’attaques contre l’enseignement supérieur dans 49 pays et territoires entre juillet 2024 et juin 2025.
Apprenez-en plus : buff.ly/Mz97SNK
Apprenez-en plus : buff.ly/Mz97SNK
December 9, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Le dernier rapport Free to Think de Scholars at Risk met en evidence les menaces à la liberté académique dans le monde entier, recensant 328 cas avérés d’attaques contre l’enseignement supérieur dans 49 pays et territoires entre juillet 2024 et juin 2025.
Apprenez-en plus : buff.ly/Mz97SNK
Apprenez-en plus : buff.ly/Mz97SNK
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
Scholars at Risk’s most recent Free to Think report highlights the threats to academic freedom around the world, documenting 328 verified incidents of attacks on higher education in 49 countries and territories from July 2024 to June 2025.
Learn more in the latest Bulletin: buff.ly/ucPlxWM
Learn more in the latest Bulletin: buff.ly/ucPlxWM
December 9, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Scholars at Risk’s most recent Free to Think report highlights the threats to academic freedom around the world, documenting 328 verified incidents of attacks on higher education in 49 countries and territories from July 2024 to June 2025.
Learn more in the latest Bulletin: buff.ly/ucPlxWM
Learn more in the latest Bulletin: buff.ly/ucPlxWM
Looking forward to this event co-hosted with our Centre @uottawahrrec.bsky.social!
@alexneve.bsky.social is the 2025 CBC Massey Lecturer. Marking International Human Rights Day, this talk will offer an overview of the lectures, including the fractured state of our world and a hopeful way forward.
📆Tomorrow at 4:30pm
🏛️FSS 4007
Register here >>> bit.ly/49KKbYE
📆Tomorrow at 4:30pm
🏛️FSS 4007
Register here >>> bit.ly/49KKbYE
December 9, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Looking forward to this event co-hosted with our Centre @uottawahrrec.bsky.social!
"By directing investment into undergraduate research jobs more of Canada’s brightest young people can gain meaningful work and the country can grow its talent pipeline for future made-in-Canada discoveries and innovation." universityaffairs.ca/opinion/fund...
Funding the future - University Affairs
Investing in student research tackles youth unemployment while building Canada’s future economy.
universityaffairs.ca
December 3, 2025 at 8:47 PM
"By directing investment into undergraduate research jobs more of Canada’s brightest young people can gain meaningful work and the country can grow its talent pipeline for future made-in-Canada discoveries and innovation." universityaffairs.ca/opinion/fund...
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
🌟 Today, we launch our latest policy brief 'How Universities Can Better Address Online Harassment'. The brief reviews international best practices for institutions to support researchers facing abuse.
democracy.ubc.ca/publications...
democracy.ubc.ca/publications...
November 27, 2025 at 6:51 PM
🌟 Today, we launch our latest policy brief 'How Universities Can Better Address Online Harassment'. The brief reviews international best practices for institutions to support researchers facing abuse.
democracy.ubc.ca/publications...
democracy.ubc.ca/publications...
..."academic freedom is a defining value not only of academia, but of democracy. That makes it worthy of our attention... Politicians defining what academic freedom looks like seems a bit contradictory”... universityaffairs.ca/features/que...
Quebec universities weather an unprecedented storm - University Affairs
The province’s institutes of higher learning are navigating immigration restrictions, language policies, budget cuts and challenges to academic freedom.
universityaffairs.ca
November 26, 2025 at 8:21 PM
..."academic freedom is a defining value not only of academia, but of democracy. That makes it worthy of our attention... Politicians defining what academic freedom looks like seems a bit contradictory”... universityaffairs.ca/features/que...
Interesting findings as we organize the next edition of @uottawahrrec.bsky.social International Humanitarian Summer School. Dates will be announced shortly!
🌍 200M+ people today live in contested territories where armed actors hold shifting control.
Drawing on recent field research, the @icrc.org shares 5 insights to strengthen humanitarian response in these fragile environments.
Read more → bit.ly/4oZupxE
#IHL #HumanitarianAction #Protection
Drawing on recent field research, the @icrc.org shares 5 insights to strengthen humanitarian response in these fragile environments.
Read more → bit.ly/4oZupxE
#IHL #HumanitarianAction #Protection
Navigating violence: five insights to strengthen humanitarian action in contested territories
The ICRC's Arjun Claire and Matthew Bamber-Zryd present five key insights to help strengthen humanitarian responses in contested territories.
bit.ly
November 25, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Interesting findings as we organize the next edition of @uottawahrrec.bsky.social International Humanitarian Summer School. Dates will be announced shortly!
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
#TrustInScience: In this first piece of a series of commentaries examining questions surrounding trust in science, Karly Kehoe explores the ethical responsibilities of scientists and institutions: https://council.science/blog/scientific-freedom-and-the-responsible-conduct-of-scientists/
Scientific freedom and the responsible conduct of scientists - International Science Council
In this blog series, members of the ISC’s Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science share their reflections on the questions surrounding trust in science, particularly in the context of policy-making. The first piece features Karly Kehoe, who examines the ethical responsibilities of scientists and institutions.
council.science
November 24, 2025 at 4:23 PM
#TrustInScience: In this first piece of a series of commentaries examining questions surrounding trust in science, Karly Kehoe explores the ethical responsibilities of scientists and institutions: https://council.science/blog/scientific-freedom-and-the-responsible-conduct-of-scientists/
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
📅DEC 10
🕟16:30
On #InternationalHumanRightsDay, HRREC is pleased to partner with @cepi-cips.bsky.social to present:
Universal: Renewing #HumanRights in a fractured world with @alexneve.bsky.social!
RSVP required➡️ bit.ly/3LQPNXp
@uottawa-innovation.bsky.social
@uottawa.ca
📅DEC 10
🕟16:30
On #InternationalHumanRightsDay, HRREC is pleased to partner with @cepi-cips.bsky.social to present:
Universal: Renewing #HumanRights in a fractured world with @alexneve.bsky.social!
RSVP required➡️ bit.ly/3LQPNXp
@uottawa-innovation.bsky.social
@uottawa.ca
November 20, 2025 at 8:42 PM
📅DEC 10
🕟16:30
On #InternationalHumanRightsDay, HRREC is pleased to partner with @cepi-cips.bsky.social to present:
Universal: Renewing #HumanRights in a fractured world with @alexneve.bsky.social!
RSVP required➡️ bit.ly/3LQPNXp
@uottawa-innovation.bsky.social
@uottawa.ca
📅DEC 10
🕟16:30
On #InternationalHumanRightsDay, HRREC is pleased to partner with @cepi-cips.bsky.social to present:
Universal: Renewing #HumanRights in a fractured world with @alexneve.bsky.social!
RSVP required➡️ bit.ly/3LQPNXp
@uottawa-innovation.bsky.social
@uottawa.ca
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
📅10 DÉC
🕟16:30
À l'occasion de la Journée internationale des #DroitsHumains, le CREDP & @cepi-cips.bsky.social présentent :
Universel : Renouveler les #DroitsHumains humains dans un monde fracturé avec @alexneve.bsky.social!
RSVP ➡️ bit.ly/43FKnEF
@uottawa-innovation.bsky.social
@uottawa.ca
📅10 DÉC
🕟16:30
À l'occasion de la Journée internationale des #DroitsHumains, le CREDP & @cepi-cips.bsky.social présentent :
Universel : Renouveler les #DroitsHumains humains dans un monde fracturé avec @alexneve.bsky.social!
RSVP ➡️ bit.ly/43FKnEF
@uottawa-innovation.bsky.social
@uottawa.ca
November 20, 2025 at 8:48 PM
📅10 DÉC
🕟16:30
À l'occasion de la Journée internationale des #DroitsHumains, le CREDP & @cepi-cips.bsky.social présentent :
Universel : Renouveler les #DroitsHumains humains dans un monde fracturé avec @alexneve.bsky.social!
RSVP ➡️ bit.ly/43FKnEF
@uottawa-innovation.bsky.social
@uottawa.ca
📅10 DÉC
🕟16:30
À l'occasion de la Journée internationale des #DroitsHumains, le CREDP & @cepi-cips.bsky.social présentent :
Universel : Renouveler les #DroitsHumains humains dans un monde fracturé avec @alexneve.bsky.social!
RSVP ➡️ bit.ly/43FKnEF
@uottawa-innovation.bsky.social
@uottawa.ca
Insightful piece by one of our Scholars at Risk #uOttawa program. leaderpost.com/opinion/opin...
Opinion: Governments that silence teachers hurt students
What these premiers don’t understand or are unwilling to acknowledge is that teacher strikes are rarely about pay alone.
leaderpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Insightful piece by one of our Scholars at Risk #uOttawa program. leaderpost.com/opinion/opin...
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
The #US govt’s interventions in #highered have been unprecedented in #Free2Think2025, writes @uniworldnews.bsky.social. Undermining university autonomy for ideological reasons sets a dangerous precedent for the US and global #highered.
www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...
www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...
Report tracks US role in global squeeze on academic freedom
The latest Scholars at Risk academic freedom report details how pressure on institutional autonomy and academic freedom in authoritarian states has co...
www.universityworldnews.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:28 PM
The #US govt’s interventions in #highered have been unprecedented in #Free2Think2025, writes @uniworldnews.bsky.social. Undermining university autonomy for ideological reasons sets a dangerous precedent for the US and global #highered.
www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...
www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
We are expanding our resources and working to create a comprehensive space for training and mentoring programs for displaced scholars and students in Canada.
If you know about relevant programs or initiatives, you can contribute by completing this short survey.
forms.office.com/r/wRHz3ch6Pv
If you know about relevant programs or initiatives, you can contribute by completing this short survey.
forms.office.com/r/wRHz3ch6Pv
Microsoft Forms
forms.office.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:07 PM
We are expanding our resources and working to create a comprehensive space for training and mentoring programs for displaced scholars and students in Canada.
If you know about relevant programs or initiatives, you can contribute by completing this short survey.
forms.office.com/r/wRHz3ch6Pv
If you know about relevant programs or initiatives, you can contribute by completing this short survey.
forms.office.com/r/wRHz3ch6Pv
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
📢 Exciting opportunity: The University of Nottingham is offering a Master's scholarship for students from the Commonwealth to study the LLM Human Rights Law!
Apply for the scholarship until 9 December 2025! Details on eligibility can be found here: www.nottingham.ac.uk/pgstudy/fund...
Apply for the scholarship until 9 December 2025! Details on eligibility can be found here: www.nottingham.ac.uk/pgstudy/fund...
November 18, 2025 at 10:33 AM
📢 Exciting opportunity: The University of Nottingham is offering a Master's scholarship for students from the Commonwealth to study the LLM Human Rights Law!
Apply for the scholarship until 9 December 2025! Details on eligibility can be found here: www.nottingham.ac.uk/pgstudy/fund...
Apply for the scholarship until 9 December 2025! Details on eligibility can be found here: www.nottingham.ac.uk/pgstudy/fund...
Impacts across many disciplines and sectors. universityaffairs.ca/features/fea...
Science interrupted - University Affairs
How the Trump administration’s cuts to U.S. science are derailing Canadian research
universityaffairs.ca
November 12, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Impacts across many disciplines and sectors. universityaffairs.ca/features/fea...
Early Career Rescue Fellowship, a sign of the times. #Academicfreedom #highered
Three German universities offering post-docs for researchers "who cannot conduct or continue their work in the USA appropriately because of actual political pressure. "
www.uni-konstanz.de/zukunftskoll...
www.uni-konstanz.de/zukunftskoll...
Early Career Rescue Fellowship
www.uni-konstanz.de
November 11, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Early Career Rescue Fellowship, a sign of the times. #Academicfreedom #highered
“If we want to maintain world-class laboratories, we must be able to recruit talent from all over the globe. Master’s or doctoral students are not the ones putting pressure on the rental market.” universityaffairs.ca/news/post-se... #Cndpoli #highered
Post-secondary leaders express mixed reactions to Budget 2025 - University Affairs
Cuts to international study permits raise alarm, research investments welcomed.
universityaffairs.ca
November 6, 2025 at 3:34 PM
“If we want to maintain world-class laboratories, we must be able to recruit talent from all over the globe. Master’s or doctoral students are not the ones putting pressure on the rental market.” universityaffairs.ca/news/post-se... #Cndpoli #highered
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
HRF condemns Beijing’s pressure on UK-based Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) to halt Professor Laura Murphy's work on Uyghur forced labor and supply chains in China. A university ban on Murphy’s research lasted from February to October of this year.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China
Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities
www.theguardian.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:29 PM
HRF condemns Beijing’s pressure on UK-based Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) to halt Professor Laura Murphy's work on Uyghur forced labor and supply chains in China. A university ban on Murphy’s research lasted from February to October of this year.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Very concerning. "At a time when Prime Minister Mark Carney is vowing to attract and retain the best scientific talent in the world, his backbenchers are undermining science by platforming a xenophobic, racist and misogynist ‘anti-woke’ agenda."
How much are MPs entitled to know about research grants? Not as much as they think. A parliamentary committee is asking for researchers' personal information in what seems like an anti-DEI crusade, by @picardonhealth.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti... via @theglobeandmail.com
Opinion: How much are MPs entitled to know about research grants? Not as much as they think
A parliamentary committee is asking for academics’ private information on a strange anti-DEI crusade
www.theglobeandmail.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Very concerning. "At a time when Prime Minister Mark Carney is vowing to attract and retain the best scientific talent in the world, his backbenchers are undermining science by platforming a xenophobic, racist and misogynist ‘anti-woke’ agenda."
Pour ceux/celles qui sont intéressés par les enjeux de la recherche et la liberté académique.
📆 4 décembre 2025 de 13 h 00 à 16 h 00 (heure de Montréal)
📍 Palais des congrès de Montréal, 201 avenue Viger Ouest, salle 524 et par Zoom
🔗 Inscription obligatoire : frq.gouv.qc.ca/evenement/11...
📍 Palais des congrès de Montréal, 201 avenue Viger Ouest, salle 524 et par Zoom
🔗 Inscription obligatoire : frq.gouv.qc.ca/evenement/11...
November 4, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Pour ceux/celles qui sont intéressés par les enjeux de la recherche et la liberté académique.
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
How much are MPs entitled to know about research grants? Not as much as they think. A parliamentary committee is asking for researchers' personal information in what seems like an anti-DEI crusade, by @picardonhealth.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti... via @theglobeandmail.com
Opinion: How much are MPs entitled to know about research grants? Not as much as they think
A parliamentary committee is asking for academics’ private information on a strange anti-DEI crusade
www.theglobeandmail.com
November 4, 2025 at 12:19 PM
How much are MPs entitled to know about research grants? Not as much as they think. A parliamentary committee is asking for researchers' personal information in what seems like an anti-DEI crusade, by @picardonhealth.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti... via @theglobeandmail.com
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
This is a remarkable case of Chinese authorities threatening a UK university into halting research on human rights violations, and the university acquiescing.
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show
Sheffield Hallam University apologises to Professor Laura Murphy for restricting her academic freedom.
www.bbc.com
November 3, 2025 at 6:44 AM
This is a remarkable case of Chinese authorities threatening a UK university into halting research on human rights violations, and the university acquiescing.
Reposted by Viviana Fernandez
So far, more than 450 Nicaraguans have been forcibly exiled and stripped of their citizenship and would have been left stateless without the intervention of democracies to provide them documentation. www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...
Nicaragua: UN Experts warn of escalating repression reaching beyond borders
GENEVA/PANAMA – Nicaragua’s Government is expanding its repression of perceived opponents far beyond its own borders, targeting Nicaraguan citizens abroad as part of an intensifying campaign to silenc...
www.ohchr.org
October 28, 2025 at 5:08 PM
So far, more than 450 Nicaraguans have been forcibly exiled and stripped of their citizenship and would have been left stateless without the intervention of democracies to provide them documentation. www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...
Members meeting and working groups sessions were on the agenda for today at #CAFA2026. @uottawahrrec.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Members meeting and working groups sessions were on the agenda for today at #CAFA2026. @uottawahrrec.bsky.social
Strong finale for the #CAFA2025 conference yesterday and solid @uottawahrrec.bsky.social presence to celebrate a new publication coming from the CAFA2023 conference, led by our member Salvador Herencia and Prof. Rafael Ibarra from Univ de Monterrey.
October 22, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Strong finale for the #CAFA2025 conference yesterday and solid @uottawahrrec.bsky.social presence to celebrate a new publication coming from the CAFA2023 conference, led by our member Salvador Herencia and Prof. Rafael Ibarra from Univ de Monterrey.