The human rights assessment was developed by an ad hoc Working Group on Human Rights, set up by the VLIR Council in January 2018, and composed of human rights experts from all Flemish universities. The present human rights assessment is a form of self-regulation by and for the Flemish universities. It should be read as a common but non-binding set of guidelines that allow the Flemish universities to further shape their institutional human rights policy.
The Ethics Committee for Misuse, Human Rights & Security was founded on May 30, 2023 by the Board of Governors. This committee is responsible for providing advise in the domains of dual use, misuse, and military use; human rights; and knowledge security. The committee will discuss submitted regarding research and/or collaborations where there is a potential risk that the results could have a military application, could be misused for criminal or terroristic purposes, where the risk of foreign interference is too high, or where there’s a direct or indirect involvement in human rights violations.