Resolutions of the International Coordination Board, US/Ukraine Research Partnership

November 21, 2000, Washington, DC USA

Prepared by the International Center of the National Institute of Justice, in consultation with the Ukrainian Academy of Law Sciences

The International Coordination Board (ICB) agrees that in general the US/Ukraine Partnership is making good progress. The parties involved are generally meeting the unprecedented challenges of working in a multi-national, multilingual, cross-jurisdictional and geographically dispersed environment. Both American and Ukrainian counterparts are learning to work together as partners and to resolve most of the difficulties that have arisen. The partnership is demonstrating a model of international cooperation that will not only be successful in Ukraine, but will be applicable to cross-national research projects in the area of crime and justice in other countries as well.

The partnership was inaugurated at a research conference in Kyiv, Ukraine in November 1999. Since then, the administrators of the overall program, its projects and other participants have identified, along with the many commendable accomplishments, a number of issues and problems that now need to be addressed. It is the resolution of the ICB that satisfactory solutions for these problems be found. These solutions must insure that we have the most efficient and effective management of the various projects, that we emphasize the needs of researchers and other grantees, that we focus on goals and objectives, and that we produce useful high-quality products, such as reports, papers, recommendations, communications links, and other deliverables of importance to the United States and Ukraine. (For detailed discussion of the issues, see the Background Paper that has been provided).

With respect to the issues discussed, the following is hereby resolved:

A. With Respect to Communication and Coordination

*There should be a clearly identified central point of administrative contact for each project for researchers and other grantees, in order that their concerns and requests be addressed and resolved promptly and satisfactorily.

*A list of all administrative personnel of the research project, including a description of their responsibilities and full contact information should be made available to all participants. In the same way, a complete list of participants and their contact information must be easily accessible, in order to facilitate communications among different teams and individual participants.

*All participants should have individual electronic mail accounts and assurance that the privacy of their communications needs are protected.

*Translation services should be arranged and structured in an expeditious and high quality mann er, as to facilitate direct correspondence via electronic mail between American and Ukrainian researchers.

*All project-related documents should be put into a single electronic archive, be frequently updated and accessible to project administrators and other participants, via a Web site/portal.

All project participants should complete a technical training course and demonstrate that they have the basic skills necessary for Internet access, Web surfing and e-mail communications. Such training course will be offered free of charge by the Rule of Law Foundation in Kyiv and Kharkiv.

The research project administrators should consider all issues identified by the researchers and determine the actions needed to resolve their concerns and inform the researchers about these actions. The administrators should convene a meeting with the Project A research groups in Kharkiv no later than January 2001 in order to discuss the organization and status of the progress of the research. The administrators can recommend that the U.S. researchers also participate in the meeting.

B. With respect to access to crime data

*All government agencies and institutions that have received grants through the Rule of Law Foundation for developing Internet capacity should, as agreed in accepting the grant, provide online access for researchers to their crime and criminal justice data and documentation. Project A administrators should ensure this access is realized.

*The agencies/grantees should develop a common inter-agency policy specifying terms, conditions and procedures for providing the data to the project researchers, as well as for providing for inter-agency exchanges of crime data, and for public access to certain crime data.

C. With respect to public affairs

*Project administrators, from both the U.S. and Ukrainian sides, should develop a plan for a public awareness and dissemination campaign in order to publicize the progress of the partnership and its accomplishments. The plan should focus on public officials and policymakers, especially those in criminal justice. There should, however, be a dissemination effort focused on the general public as well.
The plan should encompass media announcements and events, and should stress electronic communications.

*All products (publications, Web sites, seminars, etc.), developed or organized as a result of the partnership, must be clearly identified as such, with proper credit given to their authors, as well as the agencies and institutions that provided financial and other support.

D. With respect to human subjects

*All participants in the research partnership, both U.S. and Ukrainian, as a condition of theiracceptance of U.S. research funds are bound by U.S. law pertaining to the treatment of human subjects. U.S. law stipulates the following with respect to human subjects:

The Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations at 28 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 22 require all recipients of NIJ research funds to protect personally identifiable information that is collected from or about all research subjects. When personally identifiable information is collected for research or statistical purposes, the regulations at 28 CFR Part 22 provide that this information is immune from legal process and may not, without the written consent of the person to whom the information pertains, be admitted as evidence or used for any purpose in any action, suit, or other judicial, legislative, or administrative proceeding.

The DOJ regulations at 28 CFR Part 22 require applicants for NIJ funding to outline their plans for the protection of private information about individuals as part of their requests for funds. All applicants, regardless of whether they intend to collect data identifiable to individual subjects, are required to submit a Privacy Certificate as part of their application for funding. The necessary assurances and safeguards are detailed in 28 CFR Part 22 (section 22.23 Privacy Certification). http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/index.html

*It is resolved that all five joint research teams submit Privacy Certificates to both U.S. and Ukrainian project administrators if they have not already done so.