Protection and Rule of Law Officer – Mogadishu, Somalia 82 views0 applications

Background

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home. The International Rescue Committee has been working in Somalia since 2006, providing essential services to conflict and disaster-affected communities. The IRC has been operational in South Central (Mudug, Galgaduud, Banadir and Nugaal) regions of Somalia, implementing interventions in the areas of Livelihood, WASH and Health, GBV, Governance and Rights reaching out to more than 200,000 conflict and drought-affected population in these regions.

Within that framework, the IRC’s governance department has been implementing a two-year USAID grant on peacebuilding aimed at enhancing community resilience to violence in South Central Somalia. The governance department has also secured a three-year SIDA grant to implement a joint governance and rights project aimed at addressing the weak capacity of the formal and informal justice system in Somalia.

Job purpose

The Protection and Rule of Law Officer will be a key player in the implementation of IRC’s access to justice project in Benadir region. S/he will work under the overall guidance of the Governance and Rights Coordinator and under the direct supervision of the Governance and Rights Manager.

The Protection and Rule of Law Officer will build the capacity of government authorities, traditional authorities, and relevant stakeholders to promote Rule of Law and enhance individuals’ access to justice in their communities. The access to justice project involves human rights awareness raising, assisting stakeholders to identify and document human rights violations and to strengthen the access to justice referral pathway.

Specific responsibilities

Programmatic

• Implement IRC Access to Justice activities in Somalia, in line with existing strategy, SIDA proposal and donor requirements.
• Participate in the capacity assessment of local government, Community leaders’ and paralegals capacity on access to justice.
• Under the guidance of the Governance and Rights Manager, engage with community organizations; police, governmental and traditional authorities; and vulnerable groups to assist with the development of community solutions for the protection of individual’s rights;
• Support implementation of community outreach activities by paralegals on access to justice.
• Design context-specific advocacy campaigns for the promotion and protection of human rights.
• Track and regularly report on program deliverables and targets per donor requirements to the Governance and Rights Manager.
• Contribute to updating the paralegal guidance manual and information materials as needed to ensure accurate information dissemination based on ongoing context analysis.
• Contribute to any development required for governance and Access to Justice Program, including drafting concept notes, proposals as required by the Governance and Rights Manager.
• Organize and/or conduct human rights and rule of law trainings.
• In close collaboration with the relevant stakeholders, devise strategies to ensure broader representation and meaningful participation of women in the access to justice project activities.
• Identify and support the already existing formal and informal access to justice practices while at the same time promoting respect for human rights.
• Continuously carry out conflict mapping and analysis with the active involvement of LGAs and devise strategies for strengthening communal relations;
• Ensure the identification and documentation of lessons learned in program implementation;
• Identify and document appropriately any security concerns/incidents within and between communities that reside in the program location;
• Ensure strong coordination with the LGAs and other protection and human rights actors (including the police, army and civil military cooperation centers) during program implementation;
• Coordinate all workshops and trainings and compile workshop and training reports as required;
• Monitor political/security developments in the program location and keep the team informed accordingly;
• Assist in recruiting and briefing qualified consultants for the access to justice project;
• Assist with coordination of new-hire and program closeout procedures;
• Document minutes of all access to justice related meetings.
• Perform any other duties that may be assigned by the supervisor from time to time.

Budgetary

• Work with the Governance and Rights Manager to plan all project activities and ensure that all related anticipated expenses are accounted for within the budget;
• Ensure that all expenses and payments are done in accordance with the IRC’s Finance Policy.
• Create initial drafts of budgets including concept budgets; monitor small program budgets and reconcile expenditures.

Monitoring & Evaluation

• Work with the Governance and Rights Manager to ensure proper and coherent roll out of the access to justice project in the COMET system and develop the data collection tools with the M&E officer.
• Work with the M&E officer to input the data collected by the teams in to the COMET system; review data collection methodologies and develop strategies for improving data collection.

Key working relationships

Internal

• IRC program and operations staff based in Mogadishu and in Nairobi.

External

• Other civil society organizations in Somalia implementing protection and rule of law programs
• Target beneficiaries including LGAs, police, judicial staff and community members
• Leadership structures at the District and National level

Qualifications

• University degree in law; Master’s degree or specialization, in international law and policy, international relations, humanitarian affairs or similar subjects.
• 3-5 years of professional experience in the Humanitarian or Government sector.
• Sound knowledge of the legal and policy frameworks for justice service provision in Somalia.
• Excellent knowledge of the socio-political environment of Somalia.
• Excellent communication, reporting, analytical and presentation skills.
• Legal drafting skills.
• Fluent command of English and Somali.
• Ability to work autonomously and demonstrate initiative.
• Advanced level computer skills

Gender Equality: IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances.