Part of 1. Cwestiynau i'r Prif Weinidog – Senedd Cymru am 2:27 pm ar 28 Mawrth 2023.
Well, I share the Member’s view of the horror of antisemitism and there’s no doubt at all that there has been a rise in such incidents, and that we all have an obligation to play our part in resisting that. Universities, in the end, Llywydd, are autonomous bodies. The Welsh Government cannot instruct, but the Minister has made it clear in his dealings with universities that while he respects their autonomy, the Welsh Government is keen for them to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
We don’t intend to pursue this through the funding route to which Darren Millar referred, but this is how we intend to take that conversation further forward: higher education institutions in Wales have an obligation to carry out their functions in full recognition of their obligations under their public sector equality duty. We are to carry out a review of that duty here in Wales, and in that review, we will make sure that we engage with those organisations in Wales in receipt of Welsh Government funding—including the university sector—to make sure that the review of the equality and human rights duty in Wales includes consideration of relevant definitions such as the IHRA, so that that definition will be part of the review, universities are obliged under the public sector equality duty to have regard to their responsibilities, and we will be exploring that with them as part of that review.