An-Najah News - Responnding  to external pressure about the candidate’s scholarship and work on Israeli government violations of international law, Human Rights Watch (HRW) Canada said in a statement If true, it added, "not only does this do serious harm to the academic freedom, integrity, and reputation of the university’s human rights program.

The University of Toronto’s law school allegedly rescinded a job offer for director of the law school’s International Human Rights Program in response to external pressure about the candidate’s scholarship and work on Israeli government violations of international law 

it added "it creates a dangerous chilling effect on other scholars’ rights to research and advocacy."

The candidate, Valentina Azarova, was the university hiring panel’s unanimous top choice.

After the university reversed its decision, the chair of the program’s law faculty advisory committee resigned from the committee. 

Another member of the hiring panel quit his job with the program and the rest of the faculty advisory committee resigned.
International legal academics, including Israeli and Jewish scholars, have written individually in support of Azarova’s scholarship.

 Other letters of support have well over 1,300 signatories, including former and current United Nations Special Rapporteurs.

"The University of Toronto should urgently conduct an independent external review, make its findings public immediately, and swiftly address any improprieties,"