Rule of Law & Human Rights Analyst

General Background

UNDP Viet Nam continues to provide critical support in the areas of governance and participation; inclusive and equitable growth; and sustainable development, climate change and disaster risk reduction. Efforts to support Viet Nam’s development agenda are firmly grounded in the context of the One UN Initiative and the One Plan III, the consolidated programme of work of all UN agencies working in Viet Nam.

Governance and Participation

During the past decade, Viet Nam attained middle-income country status as a result of impressive economic growth. However progress in social development, including education and health, has been less rapid contributing to slower growth in human development, indicating remaining governance system challenges to keep pace with economic development. UNDP Viet Nam’s governance work focuses on three main pillars: human rights, rule of law and access to justice; citizen participation; and peace and security, including mine action. The Human Rights and Rule of Law Analyst will manage cross-unit portfolios on rule of law and human rights, and cover activities across projects on Responsible Business Practice, Rule of Law and support to international human rights reporting mechanisms.

Responsible Business Practice

UNDP Viet Nam is engaging with Government partners on developing capacity of officials and relevant Ministries in implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. UNDP will look to build on existing engagement with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Justice, and the Vietnam Institute for Human Rights to bring forward the business and human rights agenda in Viet Nam.

The Government of Viet Nam is also reviewing laws, policies and practices to strengthen the wider responsible and sustainable business framework. This has been driven by a number of factors, including the ratification of the EU Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, from within government ministries, by international organizations, civil society and by leading businesses in Viet Nam. UNDP are well positioned to support the Government, civil society and businesses in this regard and will extend their work beyond business and human rights to look also at SDG Alignment, promoting diversity and inclusion in business, and corporate environmental protection.

A further key role for UNDP has been connecting leading businesses to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs, or strengthen contributions to sustainable development efforts more generally. Building strategic private sector partnerships is key to unlocking the potential of this sector in achieving the SDGs.

Rule of Law: Supporting Adversarial Principles of Criminal Justice in Vietnam

This program is currently being implemented by UNDP with support from U.S. Department of State, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL). Under this program, UNDP is coordinating with local bar associations to raise awareness among the legal profession and law students of best practices and skills for effectively representing criminal defendants, with an emphasis on the new rights for defendants and their counsel provided in the revised Criminal Procedure Code of 2015 (effective July 1, 2016). From 1 January 2019, UNDP is seeking to strengthen the adversarial and practical skills of lawyers and law students by using the previously developed practical skills handbook and delivering Criminal Procedure Code awareness program to lawyers with Provincial Bar Associations in the North and South of Viet Nam, working with the Viet Nam National University Faculty of Law (VNU) and the Ho Chi Minh City University of Law (HCMUL).

Human Rights Reporting mechanisms

The third review of human rights situation in Viet Nam under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council took place in January 2019. The UPR process uniquely provides civil society actors with a formal role and a broad window of participation at the national and international levels, both in preparation for the review and in monitoring implementation of recommendations.  Over the last few years, UNDP has been extensively engaged with the Government of Viet Nam (MOFA, MOJ, MPS), CSOs and Embassies to prepare for human rights reviews. In Viet Nam, the engagement of civil society actors in the preparation of the review has increased significantly from no submission by domestic groups for the first cycle (2009), 13 submissions by domestic groups in the second cycle (2014), to over 50 submissions received for the third cycle (2019). This increased engagement helped strengthen recommendations by member states by providing them with the necessary background and data and effective solutions on a broad range of human rights issues, and from a diverse group of organizations. Further reporting processes supported by UNDP include under the ICCPR, CAT, CRPD and ICESCR.

The Rule of Law and Human Rights Analyst reports to the Country Office and is responsible for performing and contributing to the following:

• Overseeing portfolios on rule of law and human rights to optimize the impacts of various projects across units
• Technical advisory and knowledge management services to UNDP’s senior management on rule of law and human rights
• People management and supervision
• Programme implementation and communication
• Awareness raising, capacity building, partnership-building and advocacy.

Key Duties

Under the direct supervision of the Head of the Governance and Participation Unit UNDP Viet Nam, the Rule of Law and Human Rights Analyst will undertake the following tasks:

• Portfolio management: Overseeing cross-unit portfolio on rule of law and human rights, which comprises of various projects and programmes to optimize joint impacts of the projects and programmes and ensure alignment with UNDP’s priorities;
• Technical advice provision: Providing technical advisory services to Head of the Governance and Participation Unit and Senior Management of UNDP Viet Nam on the areas of rule of law and human rights;
• People management and supervision: Managing and supervising staff members, consultants, volunteers and interns as assigned by the Head of the Governance and Participation Unit UNDP Viet Nam;
• Project development: Working with colleagues, identify opportunities for UNDP support in the assigned area, and contribute to the formulation and initiation of new projects as needed;
• Project delivery: Providing to the planning and coordination of the implementation of ongoing projects in the assigned area, including by advising on the preparation of work plans, terms of references, progress reports, etc;
• Project assurance: Conducting assessment of the overall performance, relevance, effectiveness and sustainability of projects, the quality and effective realisation of outputs, and adherence to applicable UNDP rules, regulations and standards, including on M&E and results-based management;
• Policy advice and advocacy:  Advocating for the core values of governance (Participation and inclusion, accountability and rule of law, non-discrimination and equality) in dialogue with the Government and help identify and carry out policy related research on selected governance topics, including by offering policy advice on issues under the governance and participation portfolio;
• Partnership development: Working on building and maintaining regular contacts with national counterparts, multilateral and bilateral donor agencies and NGOs, and actively contribute to forging of UNDP partnerships
• Knowledge sharing and learning: Actively promoting the sharing of lessons learned and best practices amongst projects, counterparts, donors and within the UNDP office, build in-depth substantive and process knowledge in the assigned area, and participate in global knowledge networks;
• Communications: Conducting awareness-raising campaigns, effectively communicate key messages from programmes to target audiences, including government, donors and members of the public.

Further responsibilities:

UNDP focal point as Member of the One UN Human Rights Thematic Group.

Governance and Justice Results Group Secretariat:

Support joint programming across the UN in the area of Governance and Justice, in line with the One Strategic Plan.

Coordinator for GPT inputs to the Results-Oriented Annual Reporting (ROAR)

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in Law, Economics, Political Science, Public Policy, International Development, other Social Sciences, or closely related fields.
• Minimum 2 years of relevant experience on programme and policy work preferably in international development, rule of law, human rights, CSR, Responsible Business Practice.
• Experience working with governments, NGOs, legal professionals, businesses, research institutes is also an asset.

* A first-level university degree in combination with at least 4 years of qualifying experience in the above-mentioned areas may be accepted in lieu of the master’s degree.

• Fluency in English and Vietnamese is essential, both written and oral.

Important applicant information

All posts in the SC categories are subject to local recruitment.

Applicant information about UNDP rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Scam warning

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.