VU: No collaborations with governments involved in human rights violations

This is one of concrete principles in the assessment framework for international collaborations that has been adopted and takes effect from 1 September.

Partly prompted by the ongoing conflict in Gaza, together with the rapidly changing political climate in the world, VU Amsterdam developed the assessment framework 'Risks surrounding violations of human rights and armed conflict' (only in Dutch, the English version will be available soon) last year. The framework has been refined following its application in a pilot over the past year and based on feedback from students and staff.

Clearer distinction between governments and other partners
An important change is that the assessment framework now explicitly distinguishes between government bodies and other organisations. This means that VU Amsterdam does not cooperate with central or decentralised governments of countries for which there is plausible evidence that they are involved in gross human rights violations. VU Amsterdam consciously chooses to carefully test each collaboration rather than not entering into, stopping or freezing collaborations institution-wide in advance. Click here for a schematic representation of the procedure.

VU values and norms
The framework will assess international collaborations that are permitted under laws and regulations
against the VU values and norms. In doing so, a research collaboration is also weighed in terms of human rights. This also applies to cooperation with Israeli organisations and VU Amsterdam (to be found at www.cordis.europe.eu and www.erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu). This involves project-based and faculty teaching collaborations, as VU Amsterdam does not have partnerships in the area of student exchange or at the institution level.

Collaboration with Israel
Based on the principles of the framework, together with the advice of the Advisory Committee, VU Amsterdam has decided to discontinue a specific research collaboration involving an Israeli government. The next step is to investigate how this cooperation can be terminated, and with what legal, labour law and financial implications. This decision is one of the concrete outcomes of the pilot phase carried out over the past year. During this pilot, four cases were examined; in one instance, the project mentioned above, the research collaboration is being discontinued, while in another case, risk mitigation measures have been taken.

Follow-up and implementation
The assessment framework will come into operation on 1 September 2025. A preparation process for this will start this summer and a permanent review committee and contact persons within the faculties will be appointed. The committee will consist of experts with academic and non-scientific backgrounds who will assess the collaborations. It has been decided not to make these opinions public. With this, VU Amsterdam aims to prevent staff involved in the assessment from being unintentionally exposed publicly.

Living document
The framework is a living document and will be updated as necessary based on new insights and experiences. The assessment framework 'Risks surrounding violations of human rights and armed conflict', frequently asked questions and more detailed information can be found on this page.