Header

UN WOMEN: PROGRAM SPECIALIST, RULE OF LAW AND TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women will work for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Women's access to justice post-conflict is an area of increasing focus in the UN system. All five Women Peace and Security resolutions of the UN Security Council speak of the need to combat impunity in relation to the crimes experienced by women in conflict, ensure their equal access to all transitional justice mechanisms established, and reform justice systems in line with the real needs and obstacles women encounter in seeking justice for conflict-related crimes. Moreover, the Secretary General's report on Women's Participation in Peacebuilding and the 7 Point Action plan for its implementation mandates UN Women to create, along with OHCHR, minimum standards for gender-responsiveness in transitional justice measures.

Within the UN system, there is a growing focus on transitional justice and specifically the need for an increased gender focus - the SG's Guidance Note on Transitional Justice (2010) gives much space to the need for stronger programming and guidance in this area. The Rule of Law Coordination and Resource Group is currently undertaking a review of the implementation of the recommendations of the SG's 2004 Report on Rule of Law and Transitional Justice, with women's access to justice post-conflict as a critical area for review.

In each of these areas, UN Women is the sole leader in the system: on women's access to justice, the establishment of gender-sensitive transitional justice mechanisms, and most importantly on increasing the effectiveness and inclusion of women in reparations programmes post-conflict. Each of these will be a key area of focus for UN Women going forward.

Under the overall supervision of UN Women's Chief Advisor and the Practice Manager / Programme Advisor of the Peace and Security section, the Programme Specialist on Rule of Law and Transitional Justice will manage UN Women's Global Programme on Women's Access to Justice in conflict and post-conflict contexts, provide technical advice and strategic guidance for UN Women at the HQ and country level, make available hands-on programming support to UN Women country offices.

Duties and Responsibilities

Programme Management

  • Develop a global programme on Gender and Transitional Justice;
  • Lead UN Women's current joint programme on 'Women's Access to Justice Programme' in partnership with UNDP's Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (global secretariat functions, knowledge production, country support, and donor reporting and donor liaison );
  • Develop a consolidated workplan/schedule to ensure timely delivery of outputs by the global team as well as country teams;
  • Provide technical support to country programmes on all issues related to rule of law, access to justice post-conflict and transitional justice;
  • Mobilize resources for growing programming in the area of gender and transitional justice;
  • Provide technical support and guidance to the joint project on preparation in the DRC with OHCHR;
  • Manage SSAs and future program staff.

Technical advice on gender-sensitive transitional justice and reparations programming

  • As per the SG's Policy Committee recommendation in December 2010, UN Women is to take the lead on developing guidance on reparations for sexual and gender based crimes in partnership with OHCHR. The Program Specialist will manage the consultants jointly with OHCHR and will then produce system wide guidance from the study on reparations for conflict-related sexual violence crimes;
  • In coordination with UN Women's Africa section, provide technical support and guidance to a pilot project on reparations in the DRC in partnership with OHCHR;
  • Develop global program on reparations, truth commissions, and transitional justice more generally;
  • Develop joint strategy with OHCHR and UNDP to coordinate and expand joint transitional justice programming;
  • Review UN Women programming in the area of transitional justice in order to develop guidance for future programming;
  • Participate in or second relevant expertise to commissions of inquiry and other fact-finding or accountability mechanisms established by the UN.

Policy and development of knowledge products

  • Strategic advice on appropriate capabilities in programming, advocacy, and norm development in the area of Rule of Law, including an assessment of gaps in the system in gender and Rule of Law and assessment of the niche and potential value-added of a Rule of Law capability for UN Women;
  • Lead the development of a Gender and Rule of Law guidance note for system wide guidance through the inter-agency working group on Rule of Law (RoLCRG);
  • Maintain a watching brief on events and knowledge development in the arenas of RoL and Transitional Justice as it relates not only to programming but to shaping broader policy agendas. To this end, produce occasional conceptual updates or briefing notes, attend relevant workshops, or organize gatherings to advance learning in this field, or to promote better programming;
  • Create and disseminate knowledge products to support rule of law programming in fragile states. This includes support to collating, analyzing and consolidating lessons learnt/best practice linked to in-country programming on Rule of Law and contributing to the development of new UN Women knowledge products, research and policy;
  • Provide programmatic and technical support to UN Women country offices with a particular focus on transitional justice, including conduct trainings when requested for country offices and partners on key aspects of gender and transitional justice;
  • Develop guidance notes on gender and truth commissions and gender and reparations to guide programming within UN Women;

Partnerships, representation, and resource mobilization

  • Development of a resource generation process to finance activities in this area;
  • Represent UN Women in the UN's Rule of Law Coordination and Resource Group (RoLCRG);
  • Represent UN Women on the Rule of Law training team to be established through RoLCRG and which will develop training programmes and materials and provide 5 day training courses in the UN system on rule of law;
  • At the direction of the Chief Advisor, ensure UN Women's participation in and input to relevant inter-agency and inter governmental forums and liaison with NGOs, UN agencies and other project partners on Rule of Law (UN Action/1888 RoL Team of Experts, 1325 +10, etc);
  • Strengthen linkages with JSSR practitioners inside and outside the UN , in order to ensure comparative learning and explore opportunities for collaboration, including in particular with the "Partners for Gender Justice" consortium, the International Centre for Transitional Justice, Human Rights Centre, University of California, Berkeley, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and other relevant institutional partners.

Undertake other tasks as needed and requested by the Chief Advisor

Competencies

Core Values/Guiding Principles:

  • Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
  • Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Functional Competencies:

  • Knowledge of rule of law programming, including transitional justice notably in post-conflict contexts;
  • Knowledge of mechanisms for preventing SGBV through rule of law responses;
  • Knowledge of programme and policy analysis, strategic planning;
  • Knowledge management and generation including via communities of practice and publication track record;
  • Familiarity with the UN system's rules and procedures;
  • Managerial, organizational, budgeting, results-based management, and negotiating and communication skills;
  • Familiarity with UNDP Atlas system and Prince 2 is an asset. Maturity, ability to take decisions under pressure and ability to deal with matters that are politically or culturally sensitive. Ability to work as a member of a team;
  • Excellent writing and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master's Degree ( or equivalent) in law, social sciences, political science/ international affairs (i.e. international development studies, gender/women's studies) or a related technical field.

Experience

  • Minimum of seven years' experience in Rule of Law/human rights, peacebuilding, transitional justice, or gender and development;
  • Field experience in peacebuilding settings an asset;
  • Experience working with women's organizations and governments and in the field desirable;
  • Three years of progressively responsible professional project management, coordination, monitoring and evaluation;
  • Experience in providing technical advice/capacity building on rule of law issues.

Languages: Fluency in English is required. Fluency in French is a significant asset.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.
All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Click here for important information for US Permanent Residents ('Green Card' holders).
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.