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Palestine demonstration on Roeterseiland campus bridge
Foto: Romain Beker
actueel

Proposed new UvA house rules contain mostly new demonstration rules

Toon Meijerink Toon Meijerink ,
19 december 2024 - 15:48

A requirement for identification and a ban on overnight stays; this week the UvA published a proposal for new house and conduct rules. The biggest adjustment concerns clearer rules around demonstrating. The Central Works Council and Central Student Council have yet to approve the new rules.

In response to the pro-Palestinian demonstrations in early May 2024, the UvA has come up with new house rules this week. In practice, the general house rules have been reformulated and, in particular, the rules on demonstrating have been amended or supplemented. The regulations do still require approval from both the Central Works Council (COR) and the Central Student Council (CSR).

 

Students and staff criticised the “vague house rules” during pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year. Following the May occupations, the university pledged to have scrutinised both the house rules and the ethical framework of cooperation with third parties by the end of 2024.

Obstructing education, through occupation or blockades, is prohibited under the rules

Demonstrations allowed

With the new house rules, the UvA claims, among other things, to “clearly enshrine the right to demonstrate.” About demonstrations, the former house rules almost exclusively stated: “No expressions of a cultural, political and/or religious nature are allowed.”

 

Demonstrations, and thus expressions of a political nature, are no longer exclusively banned by the UvA. The new concept states that a demonstration or protest must above all be “peaceful.” The UvA defines peaceful as without occupation or blockades of buildings. Obstructing education for other students is also prohibited under the rules.

During the occupations in May this year, the UvA already stated that “according to the house rules, overnight stays were prohibited.” Now the university has explicitly included this in the regulations, where previously it was only stated that 'buildings and ... grounds may only be used for their intended purpose.'

 

Duty to identify

A requirement for identification - inside buildings with an employee or college card and outside with an ID - is also now established. This means that a security guard can always ask for ID. A large majority of the House of Representatives already voted in favour of compulsory identification at universities in May in response to demonstrations that got out of hand.

 

In addition, during demonstrations, organisers should be continuously recognisable and clearly approachable to university representatives. Face coverings are not legally allowed in education buildings anyway. In September, CSR chair Stefana Feciuc called on the UvA to allow face coverings at demonstrations so that oprotestors could demonstrate more freely.

Sit-in protest 12 December against UvA ties with Israeli institutions
Foto: Romain Beker
Sit-in protest 12 December against UvA ties with Israeli institutions

Private site

The UvA site falls partly under private and partly under public domain. Thus, the public prosecutor had previously claimed that arrests for trespassing on Roeterseiland were unlawful. After all, the site where demonstrations were held is also publicly accessible.

 

On its own premises, the UvA does consider restrictions on the constitutional right to demonstrate to be possible. For example, demonstrations at the university should be given 48 hours’ notice instead of the statutory 24-hour notice. The university also believes it can do so because of the accessibility of education enshrined in the law (WHW). By the way, that law is not a constitutional law.

 

Furthermore, the more general section of the new house rules requires UvA staff to respect each other when “exchanging views” and not to “disrupt campus business operations.” They are also never allowed to cause damage to persons or property - over 4 million euros in the case of the Palestine demonstrations. Finally, members of the university community should make “every effort to prevent unlawful acts.”

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