March 7^th. An-Najah National University has been recently accepted as a member in the United Nations Academic Impact program which is a global initiative that aligns institutions of higher education with the United Nations in actively supporting ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, literacy, sustainability and conflict resolution.

The ten universally accepted principles are: commitment to the principles inherent in the United Nations Charter as values that education seeks to promote and help fulfill, commitment to human rights, among them freedom of inquiry, opinion, and speech, commitment to educational opportunity for all people regardless of gender, race, religion or ethnicity and commitment to the opportunity for every interested individual to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary for the pursuit of higher education.

Also, commitment to building capacity in higher education systems across the world, commitment to encouraging global citizenship through education, commitment to advancing peace and conflict resolution through education, commitment to addressing issues of poverty through education,  commitment to promoting sustainability through education, and finally commitment to promoting inter-cultural dialogue and understanding, and the “unlearning” of intolerance, through education.

The Academic Impact also asks each participating college or university to actively demonstrate support of at least one of those principles each year. Every participating academic institution is required to carry out activities and programs through which it focuses on one or more of the ten principles. This includes conducting research and studies, organizing conferences and seminars, announcing related activities on university websites and in periodicals, in addition to involving university students in UN activities.

Commenting on this, An-Najah President, Prof. Rami Hamdallah, said that accepting the University as a member in the UN Academic Impact reinforces its international status and participation in the different global events.

Because of the critical role that higher education plays in economic and social development and as a foundation for global peace, the commitment of the members in the UN Academic Impact to education is crucial. By endorsing the ten universally accepted principles those institutions use education as an engine for addressing the world’s problems.