International Consultant (based in Ha Noi) on Child Protection Legal Analysis and Policy Papers, Viet Nam.

To conduct legal analyses and develop policy papers on selected Vietnamese child protection related legislation.

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For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Background:

The UNICEF Vietnam child protection programme (2017-2021) aims to assist the Government of Viet Nam (GoV) to develop comprehensive child protection systems to respond to emerging vulnerabilities to neglect, abuse, exploitation, and violence of children. The programme addresses the needs of vulnerable children and families for social and child protection services; contributes to strengthening capacity of social welfare and justice personnel; provides accurate information and data on child protection; and supports legal and structural reform to make the justice systems more child-friendly. 

As part of the child protection programme, UNICEF has been supporting the GoV to undertake legislative reform and capacity strengthening across the child protection sector. This support has encompassed both social welfare and justice sectors based on the strong connection between the two in respect of prevention and response to child protection issues. Such an approach is evident in UNICEF's technical support to the development of the new Child Law, which contains a dedicated chapter on child protection, and its concurrent support to the reform of criminal and civil laws in respect of children. Whilst delivering specialist technical support to reform individual laws, UNICEF has also been facilitating coherence across the reform of these laws to ensure the establishment of a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework for the protection of children. 

During 2017 several key pieces of legislation are due to be presented to the National Assembly, all of which have important implications for the national child protection system, including the Law on Legal Aid, Labour Code, and the Law on Tourism. At the same time, policy discussions are underway regarding freedom of association, social work, and sex work which all have major implications for child protection. In order to bring specific pieces of legislation into line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and related international children's rights standards, the MOLISA and MOJ have requested UNICEF to provide technical assistance for a better understanding of the international legal framework, international good practices that Viet Nam can draw lessons from, on-going assessments of the current Vietnamese legal framework and recommendations on how to strengthen the laws in relation to child protection and justice for children and the connection between the two areas. The GoV has also requested specific technical assistance into relation to the on-going policy discussions from child protection and international perspective. 

The reform of these laws as well as the policy dialogues provide an important opportunity to fill remaining legislative gaps in respect of children's rights to protection and justice for children. It also provides the opportunity to address observations from the Committee on the Rights of the Child regarding the need for Viet Nam to align its legislation more fully with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international legal instruments and standards.

Specific Tasks: 

The purpose of the assignment to support UNICEF and assist the GoV to coherently and comprehensively reform key pieces of legislation, provide strategic advice and strengthen the knowledge and understanding of relevant justice and social welfare actors to create a comprehensive child protection system and child-friendly justice system in Viet Nam that aligns with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other relevant international standards. 

Work Package 1: Advocacy on Law on Tourism  

Task 1.1: Provide technical inputs to a policy brief regarding proposed amendments to the Law on Tourism from a child protection perspective in line with international children's rights treaties and standards. Inputs to the policy brief will also be provided by Child Protection, Social Policy & Governance, and Programme Partnership staff. The consultant will be required to consolidate all inputs to ensure programmatic and children's rights consistency within the document. 

Task 1.2: Conduct a review of the final draft of the Law on Tourism presented by the National Assembly to identify potential gaps in legislation from a child protection perspective. The consultant will conduct a review the final draft to document if previous advocacy points have/not been included. If necessary, the consultant will research laws from other jurisdictions to provide insights to potential areas of concerns within the Vietnamese legislation. 

Task 1.3: Prepare a suite of child protection advocacy documents regarding the elimination of commercial sexual exploitation of children within the tourism as necessary. The documents can include letters, short policy briefs, and position papers. 

• Key deliverable: Finalized draft of the Policy Brief on the Law on Tourism; Specific child protection advocacy document(s) on commercial sexual exploitation of children and the tourism industry in Viet Nam 

Work Package 2: Advocacy on Law on Legal Aid and juvenile justice 

Task 2.1: In cooperation with the Justice Specialist, conduct a review of the final draft of the Law on Legal Aid to be presented by the National Assembly to identify potential gaps in legislation from child protection and child justice perspectives in line with international children's rights treaties and standards. The consultant will review the final draft law to document if previous advocacy points have/not been included. If necessary, the consultant will research laws from other jurisdictions to provide insights to potential areas of concerns within the Vietnamese legislation. 

Task 2.2: In cooperation with the Justice Specialist, conduct an initial comparison assessment of selected countries (ASEAN and others) specialised legislation on juvenile justice. The scope of this assessment will be agreed with the Justice Specialist, with input from Government counterparts, in order to support the development of a proposal for a juvenile justice law in Viet Nam. 

Task 2.3: Prepare a suite of advocacy documents regarding child-friendly legal aid in Viet Nam and promotion of access to justice for children as necessary. These documents can include letters, short policy briefs, and position papers. 

• Key deliverable: Comparison assessment of juvenile justice legislation in selected countries; Advocacy document(s) on child-friendly legal aid in Viet Nam  

Work Package 3: Advocacy on Law on Associations and children's rights

Task 3.1: In cooperation with the Governance Specialist and Justice Specialist, conduct a review of the existing draft Law on Associations most recently submitted to the National Assembly to identify potential gaps in legislation from an international children's rights perspective. The consultant will review the final draft presented by the National Assembly to document if previous advocacy points have/not been included. 

Task 3.2: Prepare, as necessary, a suite of advocacy documents regarding the rights of children within civil society as necessary. The documents can include letters, policy briefs, position papers, briefing notes for the Head of Office. 

• Key Deliverable: Gap Analysis of Law on Associations from children's rights perspective; Updated briefing Note on the Law of Associations  

Work Package 4: Advocacy on the Labour Code and elimination of child labour

Task 4.1: In cooperation with the Child Protection Specialist (Exploitation) conduct a review of the final draft of the Labour Code to be presented by the National Assembly to identify potential gaps in legislation from a child protection perspective in line with international children's rights treaties and standards. The consultant will review the final draft to document if previous advocacy points have/not been included. 

Task 4.2: Prepare a suite of advocacy documents in respect of the elimination of child labour and children's involvement in worst forms of child labour as necessary. The documents can include will letters, short policy briefs, and position papers. 

• Key deliverable: Key Deliverable: Gap Analysis of Labour Code from child protection perspective; Advocacy document(s) on elimination of worst forms of child labour  

Work Package 5: Policy advocacy regarding sex work

Task 5.1: In cooperation with the Child Protection Specialist (Exploitation), conduct a review of the existing legal instruments on sex work, and draft a policy brief regarding the commercial sexual exploitation of children in line with international children's rights treaties and standards. Inputs to such a policy brief will be provided from across the Office and from UNICEF regional level. The consultant will also utilise and cross-reference relevant documents from relevant UN Agencies (including UNFPA, UN Women) regarding the issues surrounding sex work in Viet Nam generally. 

Task 5.3: Prepare a suite of advocacy documents regarding child protection and the elimination of commercial sexual exploitation of children as necessary. The documents can include letters, short policy briefs, and position papers. 

• Key deliverable: Final draft of the Policy Brief; Advocacy document(s) on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children 

Work Package 6: Violence Against Children Fact Sheet

Task 6.1: Conduct a review of the existing ASEAN Analysis of Domestic Laws related to Violence against Children in Viet Nam factsheet and update all related documents as per current Vietnamese legislation. The consultant will review all legislation which has been recently amended relating to violence against children to ensure documents accurately reflect the current legislation in Viet Nam.  

Task 6.2: Based on the review of the ASEAN Analysis of Domestic Laws related to Violence against Children in Viet Nam, validate the proposed child protection programme indicator, and propose method(s) of verification and baseline to be used by the child protection programme (2017-2021) 

• Key Deliverable: Final draft of Legislative response to Violence against Children in Viet Nam Factsheet

Expected Deliverables and Timeline: 

The contract period will be from March-June 2017. The following tentative due dates will be determined and agreed with the Consultant:

Final draft of Legislative response to Violence against Children in Viet Nam Factsheet, end of March.

Gap Analysis of Law on Associations from children's rights perspective; Updated briefing Note on the Law of Associations, end of March.

Advocacy document(s) on child-friendly legal aid in Viet Nam, Mid-April.

Comparison assessment of juvenile justice legislation in selected countries (to be agreed), end of April.

Final draft of the Policy Brief about commercial sexual exploitation of children; Advocacy document(s) on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children, end of April.

Gap Analysis of Labour Code from child protection perspective; Advocacy document(s) on elimination of worst forms of child labour, end of June.

Final draft of the Policy Brief on the Law on Tourism; Specific child protection advocacy document(s) on commercial sexual exploitation of children and the tourism industry in Viet Nam, end of June.

Performance indicators for evaluation:

Indicator for completion and satisfaction measurement will be based on UNICEF Viet Nam own evaluation and judgement, and not that of the Consultant. This means that deliverables will be deemed to be satisfactorily completed by the Supervisor of the Consultancy. The Supervisor is required to provide timely and written feedback to the Consultant in order to avoid miscommunication, and also hold regular meetings with the Consultant as needed.

Management and Reporting:

This consultancy is under the direct supervision of Mr Vijaya Ratnam-Raman, Acting Chief of Child Protection. Oversight and final sign-off on deliverables will be provided by the Acting Chief of Child Protection.

Expected background and Experience: 

The required skills and experience for the consultant is as follows:

• Degree in Law and admitted to legal practice/legal professional accreditation;
• Demonstrated understanding of child protection and experience conducting child protection focussed legal reviews;
• Strong understanding and familiarity with Viet Nam and current national development priorities, challenges, particularly issues facing rights of children and women;
• Knowledge and experience working with UNICEF in child protection considered an asset;
• Must be based in Viet Nam;
• Excellent analytical and conceptual skills;
• Team work and ability to work in a culturally diverse office environment;
• Able to work independently with minimum supervision; and
• Fluent English speaker with excellent written and oral skills.

To view our competency framework, please click here. 

Interested candidates are kindly requested to apply online and submit the following documents:

1. Statement of how the candidates meet the selection criteria;
2. Financial Proposal: The consultant must prepare a financial proposal with breakdown of cost including the consultancy fee, DSA, travel (if any) and other ancillary costs.
3. Three Referees with details of similar consultancy assignments.
4. The Consultant must complete and submit a P-11 form ( UN Personal History Form )

Closing date for receipt of applications is Sunday 5 March 2017 at 23:55hours Viet Nam Time.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.