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International Consultant for technical assistance to the Government of Montenegro for conducting analyses on international standards,national legislation and ground needs related to the creation of child friendly environment/spaces in the justice system

Podgorica

  • Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
  • Location: Podgorica
  • Grade: Consultancy - International Consultant - Internationally recruited Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Political Affairs
    • Legal - Broad
    • Legal - International Law
    • Environment
    • Democratic Governance
    • Children's rights (health and protection)
    • Peace and Development
  • Closing Date: Closed

UNICEF Montenegro is seeking for International Individual Consultant to provide technical assistance to the Government of Montenegro for conducting analyses on international standards, national legislation and ground needs related to the creation of child friendly environment/spaces in the justice system of Montenegro.

Terms of Reference: International Individual Consultant to provide technical assistance to the Government of Montenegro for conducting analyses on international standards, national legislation and ground needs related to the creation of child friendly environment/spaces in the justice system of Montenegro

 

I. Background and Context

The concept of a child-friendly justice has been rooted in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as an acknowledgement of the child as a rights holder and on the main principles of the CRC on a child right to be heard and participate in proceedings affecting him/her (art. 12), non-discrimination (art.2), the best interests of a child (art.3), the right to a fair trial (art. 40) and right to privacy (art.16).
According to the Guidelines of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on Child-Friendly Justice (2010) , Child Friendly Justice is " justice that is accessible, age appropriate, speedy, diligent, adapted to and focused on the needs and rights of the child”. The main idea behind the concept is that a child involved in the justice system, be it in the capacity of a witness, victim or the one in conflict with the law, should feel safe at any stage of judicial proceedings. Also, the environment should be contributing to a participation of a child in the proceedings and the realization of his/her rights.
In addition, the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its General Comment No 12 holds:" A child cannot be heard effectively where the environment is intimidating, hostile, insensitive or inappropriate for her or his age", and that " particular attention needs to be paid ... to the design of court rooms, clothing of judges and lawyers, sight screens, and separate waiting rooms."
The European Guidelines on Child-friendly Justice hold that cases involving children should be dealt with in non-intimidating and child-sensitive settings where they can feel safe and speak freely. Specific reference is made to, inter alia, child-friendly waiting and interview rooms for children, where there are no disturbances by unwarranted interruptions; to avoiding direct contact of child victim and alleged perpetrator; to officials wearing no uniforms, but ordinary clothes; or to hearing a child in the judge's chamber, as a less formal environment. The Guidelines do not, however, describe in detail how such separate environments shall be designed or decorated.
In the previous years, considerable progress has been made and strong political commitment was achieved in the reform of the country’s judicial system and juvenile justice as an integral component. The initiative proved to be fully aligned with Government`s priorities within the EU accession process, and defined as one of the priority areas in the National Strategy on Judicial Reform (2014-2018) and the Montenegro`s Action plan for the Chapter 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights). The Justice for Children Reform also proved to be of significant importance for Montenegro`s follow up actions in fulfilling the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to Montenegro.
One of the major results of the juvenile justice system reform was the adoption of the Act on the Treatment of Juveniles in Criminal Proceedings (2011), in line with international standards of child rights protection, that provides the legal framework for a comprehensive, rights-based system of juvenile justice in Montenegro and adaptations of general mainstream system for children victims and witnesses of crime. The new legislation envisages special protection of children victims and witnesses of crime to avoid secondary victimization ensures that hearing of children so the hearing of children is limited to one, maximum two times through special audio-visual equipment. Within Justice for Children initiative (2012-2014) implemented by the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, with EU financial support and UNICEF technical assistance, one of the objectives was to improve the rights, status and treatment of children in conflict with law and introduce child friendly hearing procedure for children victims and witnesses of crime. Therefore, child friendly hearing procedures for victims and witnesses of crime are facilitated through procurement and installation of audio-visual equipment for 14 courts/prosecutors’ offices and provision of training on UN Guidelines on Justice in Matters involving Children Victims and Witnesses of Crime for selected number of mainstream criminal justice professionals. 
The External Evaluation of Justice for Children Reform Initiative (J4CP) - an initiative of the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, supported by UNICEF Montenegro and with the financial assistance of the European Union under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance 2011 (IPA 2011) stressed that continuous efforts are needed to ensure necessary preconditions are in place to ensure application of child friendly justice proceeding.

Despite obvious and tangible progress achieved in juvenile justice, the Government of Montenegro has recognized that the reform focus should be expanded towards broader children’s access to justice issues. This will ensure full protection of the rights of all children who participate in overall, mainstream criminal, civil and administrative justice processes. Throughout the implementation of the extensive juvenile justice system reform it became apparent that work with families at risk of breakdown and in particular the rights of children participating in civil proceedings are the two areas that have not received sufficient attention. Therefore, the Government of Montenegro noted the need for further harmonization of the of Montenegro`s family legislation and related practice with international instruments and has set it as one of the priority areas in Montenegro`s EU accession process.

In that sense, with UNICEF technical assistance, the Government of Montenegro adopted amended Family Law in 2016 that provided the child with full standing capacity in all proceedings affecting the child, introduced the institute of Support Person to the child, provided better guarantees for children’s voices to be heard and opinions considered throughout the entire court proceeding, and generally provided better substantial and procedural guaranties for the rights of the child to be adequately addressed and protected throughout the entire court proceeding.
To address this situation, UNICEF supports the Government in its efforts to promote the concept of child-friendly justice and to create preconditions for child-friendly environment so to decide whether child-friendly infrastructure should be set up in the Police, Prosecutor's Offices, or Courts, premises where child-sensitive interviewing procedures could be introduced by highly specialized staff.
For this purpose, UNICEF is seeking to contract an international consultant for the provision of an analyses of international standards, national legislation and ground needs related to the creation of child friendly environment/spaces in the justice system of Montenegro. The analyses will include comparative experiences and the best model/practices from other countries with recommendations on best ways to be incorporated into national context.
The main goal is to protect children who are participating in justice system, whether they are children victims or witnesses of crime or children participating in civil and administrative proceedings.

 

II. Purpose and Objective

The purpose of this assignment is to improve the status and rights of children participating in the justice related proceedings that affect children.
The objective of this activity is to provide technical assistance to the Government of Montenegro, more precisely Ministry of Justice to identify the best options/solutions for establishing child friendly spaces for children’s hearings and all situations where children are in contact with justice system.

 

III. Methodology and Technical Approach

The methodology will include desk review, written inputs, and consultations with all respective institutions, development of the analyses and presentation of analyses.

This assignment is expected to commence on 21th May 2018 and end on 1thJuly 2018. The consultants are expected to spend a total of 17 working days on this assignment. They will spend up to 4 working days in Montenegro while rest of the time will be home based.

 

IV. Activities and Tasks

The activities of the assignment will be conducted in close cooperation with the relevant representatives of the Ministry of Justice and UNICEF’s Child Protection Team. The Team of Consultants are expected:

  • To review, within the preparatory phase, the Act on the treatment of juveniles in criminal proceeding (2012), new Amendments to the Family Law of Montenegro (2016), Bylaw on the education of the Support Persons to the Child in Family Law related proceedings (Official Gazette, No. 046/17 from 18/07/2017), Law on Free Legal Aid; Strategy for Judiciary Reform (2014-2018); Strategy on the reform of Judiciary (2014-2018); Strategy on prevention and protection of Children from violence (2017-2021);
  • To make reference to the following documents: Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); General Comments No.12 on children's right to be heard; General Comment no 14 on the right of the child to have his or her best interests taken as a primary consideration; European Convention on the Exercise of Child Rights; Council of Europe`s Guidelines on Child Friendly Justice, UNICEF CEECIS Study: Children’s Equitable Access to Justice, etc.;
  • To communicate with respective officials from the relevant institutions and UNICEF to receive in-depth guidance to develop an analysis with recommendations;
  • To produce the draft report on the analyses related to the creation of child friendly environment/spaces for the needs of children participating in the justice system, comparative experiences and best models/practices in other countries and providing recommendations/best solutions that can be adopted to national context that will be shared with respective counterpart and UNICEF for comments;
  • To make presentation of the draft analysis to the relevant counterparts and UNICEF;
  • Based on the received inputs and comments, to finalize the report on the analyses related to the creation of child friendly environment/spaces in the justice system of Montenegro.


V. Key Deliverables and Timeframe

The Consultant/s is/are expected to produce the following key deliverables:

                     Key Deliverables

Number of days

Timeframe

 

Desk review (of legal texts, international documents, comparative experiences and best models/practices of other countries)

4 days

By end May 2018

To communicate with respective officials from the relevant institutions to receive in-depth guidance to develop expected report/analyses

2 days

By 15 June 2018

To produce the draft report on the analyses related to the creation of child friendly environment/spaces in the justice system of Montenegro and providing recommendations/best solutions on its creation

8 days

By 25 June 2018

Presentation of the draft analyses to relevant counterparts and UNICEF

1 day

By end June 2018

To finalize the report based on the feedback received from national counterparts and UNICEF

2 days

By end June 2018

Total number of days

17     days

 

VI. Management and Organisation

 

Management: The Consultant/s will be supervised by the UNICEF Child Protection Officer. The relevant national stakeholders will be consulted on a regular basis for the feedback regarding the consultant’s work performance. 

Organization: International Consultant/s will be required for this consultancy. If more than one consultant is engaged for the assignment, the fee for each consultant will be negotiated depending on their qualifications, the scope of work required from each consultant and the duration of their engagement.

Schedule: This assignment will commence on 21th May 2018.

 

VII. Qualifications/specialized knowledge/experience required to complete the task:

 

The Consultant/s is/are expected to have the following qualifications/specialized knowledge/experience required to complete the task:

Education:

  • An advanced university degree in law and other related social science, specialization in human rights would be preferable;

Experience:

  • Knowledge of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, UN Committee Comments No.12, No.14., CoE Guidelines on Child Friendly Justice, and other relevant international and regional standards in the area of access to justice;
  • Familiarity with the local context in Montenegro with respect to the justice, access to justice, would be considered as an asset;
  • Previous work experience with UNICEF will be considered as an advantage;

Language:

  • Excellent command of English, whilst knowledge of Montenegrin language will be considered as an advantage;

Other:

  • Strong communication and writing skills.

 

 

VIII. Budget and Remuneration 

 

 

The consultant’s fee may be reduced if the assignments/deliverables are not fulfilled to the required standard. In a case of serious dissatisfaction with the consultant’s performance the contract may be terminated in line with UNICEF procedure in such matters and as spelled out in the contract.

 

IX. Applications Procedure

  • The candidates are requested to submit their financial offer as a separate document consisting of fee for the services to be provided, travel and subsistence costs, as/ if applicable.
  • Only the short-listed applicants will be contacted for an interview.

 

This vacancy is now closed.
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