National Legal Consultant with Child Protection, Baghdad

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. And we never give up.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child,

The objective of this project is to help inform and improve the responses by the government, the civil society organizations (CSO) and NGOs, human rights organizations, and the UN and to support ongoing work with relevant government ministries to strengthen their ability to support survivors of conflict related sexual violence (CRSV) and children born of rape. In general, there is a low understanding of the legal and social barriers faced by children born of rape, their mothers, and other GBV and CRSV survivors, and there is an urgent need to strengthen the responses at all levels. This includes the need to collect reliable data on the populations concerned, and improve understanding of the problem and the legal framework and practices which may enable or limit the access to basic rights for children born of rape or in ISIL-held territories, and survivors of CRSV. Through undertaking of this project, UNICEF, in collaboration with UNAMI, will lead on evidence generation to better understand the issues and challenges affecting women and children's access to civil documentation and registration and how to overcome them.

The purpose of this consultancy is to support the work of UNICEF and UNAMI to undertake comprehensive mapping and analysis of the legal framework in Iraq to identify laws and policies related to civil documentation and registration for women and children affected by CRSV, including children born of rape, and with perceived affiliation to ISIL and their mothers, and to identify gaps and areas of advocacy or intervention to improve women and children's rights and access to justice, protection, and services. Specifically, the consultant will carry out a comprehensive mapping of the laws and policies related to civil registration and recognition before the law of children born of rape, and in ISIL held territories, and their mothers.

How can you make a difference?

The Legal Research Consultant will undertake the following work:

1. Assess the scope of the problem: to identify and examine key legal and human rights issues affecting children born of rape or fathered by ISIL fighters, and their mothers, as well as women and girls affected by CRSV.
2. Review and provide analysis of the national legal and regulatory framework:
   1. The review will identify laws, regulations, policies and practices related to civil documentation and registration for children born of rape or in ISIL-controlled territory and their mothers, including marriage and birth registration. It will also look at whether a process is established in primary legislation, through a court application, in an administrative rule, in policy, or simply not defined.
   2. The analysis will look at how the laws, policies, administrative procedures and processes are implemented in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) in order to determine how the legal framework affects the children and women and their ability to obtain identity documents and other civil documentation; and to what extent the legislation protects or hinders their rights, including access to legal and social protections and services.
3. Conduct stakeholder mapping and analysis: to identify key stakeholders from among the Ministries, governmental authorities (MoDM, MoLSA, MoI, MoJ, MoH, registration authorities, High Judicial Council, etc.), and legal experts, and analyze stakeholders according to stakeholder level of interest and influence over the laws and policies and their application in practice.
4. Conduct data collection and key interviews: to map existing responses in different locations, including judicial and local authorities handling of cases, and treatment of children and women facing legal registration issues. The assessment should look at the ways in which laws, policies and processes are applied, including formal and informal practices, noting any geographic variations or specific vulnerabilities of women and children in different circumstances or of specific background.
5. Prepare final report based on the findings:
   1. the report will include comprehensive analysis of the legal framework and document and highlight the context and reality of women and children affected by CRSV or with perceived affiliation to ISIL, including children born of rape, in terms of legal challenges that impede their access to civil documentation, legal protection and access to services.
   2. Identify gaps and areas of advocacy or intervention, and provide an analysis and recommendations on possible policy interventions to safeguard and promote the rights of children lacking registration, and CRSV survivors.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Advanced University degree in Law, Political Science, Journalism or other related field
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant experience is required
• Expert knowledge of international human rights law, legal framework, child protection issues, gender based violence
• Experience of conducting legal research (desk and field based)
• Expert knowledge of government structure and legislative processes
• Ability to research and conduct interviews with key informants; strong research and analytical skills
• Sound judgment, strategic thinking, diplomacy and using confidentiality and discretion
• Demonstrates integrity by modelling UNICEF values and ethical standards
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Fluent in spoken and written Arabic and English, knowledge of Kurdish is a plus.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

• Detailed CV indicating necessary qualifications and all relevant experience.
• Motivation/cover letter (2 pages max.) stating motivation for applying and how you meet the qualifications.
• One writing sample (3 pages max)

All applications should be submitted to hriraq@unicef.org as soon as possible and latest by 28th March 2018. please group all your documents into a single PDF file

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.