CAUT Council delegates celebrated the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel at a special event on Nov. 25.

The event featured release of a booklet authored by former CAUT executive director Donald Savage, and Patricia Finn, former executive director of the Carleton University Academic Staff Association, who produced the draft international instrument for the governing body of UNESCO, and a panel discussion with David Edwards, deputy general secretary of Education International, Joanna de Groot, president of the University and College Union in the UK, and Monique Fouilhoux, chair of the global campaign for education. The panelists highlighted the importance of the adoption of the recommendation in November 1997 as the first international statement sanctioned by the United Nations on rights and responsibilities for the academic community and explored the progress that has been made in the years since the recommendation’s adoption.