LEGAL ADVISER AND DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS AND LEGAL AFFAIRS

The Office of International Standards and Legal Affairs reports directly to the Director-General. The Office’s mission is to protect the Organization’s interests by concentrating its efforts along two main lines\: ensuring compliance with the Organization’s rules, regulations and procedures; and, pursuing improvements in the legal safety of activities carried out by the Organization.

The work of the Legal Adviser/Director of the Office of International Standards and Legal Affairs (LA) is of an advisory and managerial nature. It requires in-depth analysis of legal issues and provision of authoritative, reliable and judicious legal advice on complex and highly varied questions of international and national law. It includes managerial responsibility for a vital area of the Organization's programmes, the direction and provision of leadership to staff in various organizational units dealing with the analysis of administrative, substantive, procedural and other intricate problems that are of critical concern to the Organization, and contribution to the overall policy and objectives of the Organization.

Under the authority of the Director-General, the incumbent will be responsible for the direction and management of the overall Office. In particular, the incumbent will provide organizational leadership and strategic guidance to the Office in the preparation, coordination and supervision of the activities and management related to the financial and human resources of the Office.

Specifically, the incumbent will\:

• Be responsible for providing legal advice on all legal issues arising from the Organization’s activities;
• Advise the Secretariat on legal issues pertaining to the regulatory, statutory and standard-setting activities of the Organization;
• Be required to provide legal advice, at their request, to the General Conference and the Executive Board of UNESCO;
• Advise on the elaboration, adoption and revision of international standard-setting instruments, and on the implementation of the procedures for the application of these instruments;
• Advise on the application, interpretation and amendment of the Constitution and other statutory and legislative texts of the Organization;
• Direct the preparation and review of briefs for representing the Organization in proceedings before courts of law, administrative tribunals and any other judicial or quasi-judicial bodies;
• Represent the Director-General on the committees of the governing bodies of UNESCO relating to legal matters;
• Be responsible for the management of LA and ensure the direction of the activities of the Office and its cooperation with the other units of the Organization.

For further information on the specific above-mentioned programmes, candidates may consult our website\: https\://en.unesco.org/, and/or the following documents\: 37 C/4 (UNESCO's Medium-Term Strategy, 2014–2021) and 39 C/5 (Approved UNESCO's Programme and Budget for 2018–2019).

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