1. Purpose

At the World Anthropological Union (WAU) Congress’ General Assembly, at Misty Hills in Johannesburg South Africa, on 13 November 2024, a Motion Concerning the Genocide in Palestine (hereafter the motion) was presented. The motion was subsequently submitted to the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) executive committee on 27 November 2024. Thereafter, the motion was emailed to membership and put to vote from 23 December 2024 to 6 January 2025. The motion received an 80% vote in the affirmative. As per the motion, this working group is tasked with, ‘monitor(ing) and defin(ing) guidelines to protect engaged scholarship against genocide, violence and repression.’

This document, therefore, provides practical steps for implementing the motion.

2. Guiding Principles

• Solidarity: Stand with scholars and students under conditions of war, occupation, and genocide.
  
  
• Feasibility: Focus on achievable actions with clear and measurable impact.
  
  
• Partnership: Work with existing networks rather than duplicate efforts.
  
  
• Accountability: Ensure transparency in what is promised and what is delivered.

3. Implementation Guidelines

A. Short-Term (First 12 Months)

• Communication & Visibility
• Share the motion and these guidelines widely among members and partner associations.
• Translate the guidelines into Arabic and potentially other languages.
  
  
• Set Up Working Group
• Volunteer-based, maximum 7 members.
• Tasks: coordinate solidarity activities, collect information, and prepare short updates for the IUAES community, develop guidelines for the implementation of the Motion.
  
  
• Practical Solidarity for Scholars
• Circulate calls for mentorship, online collaboration, or guest lectureships within IUAES networks.
• Connect interested members with organizations like Scholars at Risk or CARA, rather than building new systems from scratch.
• Assist with connecting scholars impacted by suppression of speech on Palestine with existing pro-bono legal resources such as legal advice from The European Legal Support Center (ELSC).
  
  

• Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)

• Recommend alignment with PACBI Guidelines of non-cooperation with Israeli academic institutions.

B. Medium-Term (1–3 Years)

• Online Support and Exchanges
• Organize online seminars, workshops, or reading groups with Palestinian colleagues when feasible.
• Encourage members to include Palestinian scholars in conferences and events (waiving fees where possible).
  
  
• Documentation & Awareness
• Collect testimonies, articles, or reflections from affected scholars for publication in IUAES newsletters or websites.
• Encourage students and early-career scholars worldwide to collaborate on joint research or digital archiving projects.
  
  
• Resource Pooling
• Create a user-friendly “solidarity database” of volunteer mentors, research collaborators, and translators who can support colleagues under threat.

C. Long-Term (3–5 Years)

• Sustained Collaboration
• Develop ongoing relationships with Palestinian scholars and institutions (e.g., joint online courses or co-edited publications).
• Identify sustainable forms of support (such as long-term mutual and multidirectional mentorship networks or shared digital repositories. 

• Institutional Embedding
• Maintain and support the Standing Working Group on Scholarship under Genocide, Violence and Repression within IUAES, made up of volunteers.
• Ensure that each IUAES Congress includes at least one panel/session dedicated to these issues.

4. Monitoring and Reporting

• Simple annual update from the Working Group to the IUAES General Assembly.
  
  
• Emphasis on measurable and real outcomes, and given the need for discretion, narratives of intangible impacts (e.g., number of mentorships, number of joint seminars held, testimonies published, advocacy for scholars at risk, connecting scholars at risk with databases).