International educators at a conference in St. Louis, Missouri evaluated the need for a global charter to protect international students’ human rights.  Panelists discussed how academic institutions may short-change international students, and discussed increasing levels of discrimination against and exploitation of students enrolled in schools outside their home countries. They examined health, safety, security and well-being deprivations encountered by these students. They explored  possible domestic and international remedies for these wide-ranging human rights violations.

Panelists examined the Australian Government Principles to Promote and Protect the Human Rights of International Students, and the International Student Mobility Charter of the European Association for International Education (EAIE). A call to action was made for countries, international education associations, and others to design and adopt similar localized principles and guidelines to protect international students.

A call to action was also made for a universal charter, through the United Nations, to protect international students. It could be named the United Nations Declaration on International Students’ Rights, and could be used as a model and guide for similar instruments to be promulgated by the European Union, the Organization of Amaerican States, the African Union, and other inter-governmental organizations.

Panelists suggested that educational institutions around the globe adopt international students’ rights protection instruments, disseminate them widely to stakeholders, and support enforcement measures to help ensure that international students’ internationally recognized human rights are protected at all levels.

Widespread adoption of these instruments would cement recognition that international students’ rights are human rights, and should be protected throughout the world.