Third party collaborations: conflict zones and human rights violations
Expansion of the Policy Framework
The intense violence in the Middle East and the discussions this has sparked within our community show that our current evaluation framework for assessing international collaborations provides insufficient guidance when collaborating in conflict situations. Therefore, we have spent the past year expanding this assessment in consultation with our academic community. The UvA Advisory Committee on Collaboration with Third Parties, which worked on the framework, was temporarily expanded with four UvA experts in the fields of human rights, genocide studies, conflict studies, and international educational collaborations.
Final Steps
The final draft of the assessment framework is complete. The University Committee on Education, University Committee on Research, University Committee on Valorization, and Senate have provided their feedback. The representative advisory bodies can now issue their advice. All feedback and recommendations will be processed in January, after which the assessment framework can be formally adopted by the Executive Board.
From that point on, all new collaborations can be evaluated against the new framework. Existing collaborations that may be potentially controversial will also undergo a new review.
More information about the exact content of the evaluation framework, the questionnaire, and the steps employees can take to assess the risks of research and educational collaborations will follow upon the final adoption of the assessment framework in January.
Over the past year, the expanded committee has assessed three urgent cases. These cases relate specifically to collaborative ventures with partners in ‘sensitive countries’. In two cases, the contract term is coming to an end in the very near future, the other case involves sanctions by the EU:
- Student Exchange Agreement with Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- MoU with China Scholarship Council on PhD training
- Student exchange with universities in Hungary as part of the Erasmus programme
The advice about these three cases will be finalised in January.
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The process leading to this draft evaluation framework
- In May, an ad hoc working group consisting of UvA experts was tasked with gathering perspectives and input from all parts of the UvA. After roundtable discussions and a town hall meeting, this group made 11 recommendations before the summer.
- In the meantime, no new collaborations were initiated with parties in countries or regions experiencing war or conflict where serious human rights violations could occur.
- To translate the recommendations of the working group into a new evaluation framework, the UvA Advisory Committee on Collaboration with Third Parties took over the work of the ad hoc working group.
- The advisory committee was temporarily expanded with four additional UvA experts in the fields of human rights, genocide studies, conflict studies, and international educational collaborations.
- At the same time, the three individual cases were reviewed, and a decision on these will be made soon.
- The draft proposal for the framework was discussed with the University Committee on Education, University Committee on Research, University Committee on Valorization, and Senate. Feedback from these groups has been incorporated into the draft.
- The Central Works Council (COR) and the Central Student Council (CSR) have advisory rights.
- After incorporating the feedback from the representative bodies, the Executive Board will formally adopt the framework. Existing collaborations that may be considered controversial will also be evaluated.
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Committee composition & process
The already existing Advisory Committee on Collaboration with Third Parties is working on additions to the assessment framework, based on the 11 recommendations made previously. To this end, four colleagues with specific expertise have been added to the team in recent months.
The existing committee, is chaired by Aart Nederveen (Amsterdam UMC). Click here (employee website) for the composition of the existing committee.
The committee now also has the following temporary members:
- Yvonne Donders, professor of International Human Rights and Cultural Diversity, director of the Amsterdam Graduate School of Law and member of the UN Human Rights Committee.
- Carlos Reijnen, associate professor of East European Studies and director of the College for Humanities.
- Ugur Üngör, professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies (UvA and NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies).
- Jan de Boer, professor of Theoretical Physics, member of the Executive Board of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and chair of NWO’s Science domain.
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Documents and more information
- View the evaluation framework that was sent to the representative bodies.
- View the responses from the University Committee on Education, University Committee on Research, University Committee on Valorization, and Senate (in Dutch).
- Find more information about the Advisory Committee on Collaboration with Third Parties (in Dutch).
- Read an interview with the chair of the Advisory Committee on Collaboration with Third Parties about the work on the expanded framework.
- Read more about the ad hoc working group that gathered input from within the UvA for the expanded framework, enabling the advisory committee to begin work on it.
- Read the full report with the findings of the ad hoc working group, which was handed over to the Advisory Committee on Collaboration with Third Parties during the summer.