International Consultant to develop a policy brief for the EStAR Project

Background:

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is seeking an experienced consultant to develop a “Policy brief on existing structural arrangements, shortcomings and recommendations” for the Enhancing Stakeholder Awareness and Resources on Hate Crime Victim Support (EStAR) Project.

ODIHR is the principal institution of the OSCE responsible for the human dimension of security. It is active throughout the OSCE area in the fields of election observation, democratic development, human rights, tolerance and non-discrimination, and rule of law. 

The Enhancing Stakeholder Awareness and Resources on Hate Crime Victim Support (EStAR) is a two-year project, implemented between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021, and supported by Extra-budgetary contributions from the European Commission and the German Government. The project is implemented by ODIHR and VBRG, (Association of Counseling Centers for Victims of Right-wing, Racist and Anti-Semitic Violence in Germany) across 41 OSCE participating States.  

The project aims to: 

• Increase awareness of national stakeholders on hate crime victims' rights and needs, of OSCE/EU commitments, standards and good practices in hate crime victim support;
• Collaborate with hate crime victim specialists from both government and civil society in the development of a broader range of tools and resources for national criminal justice system practitioners’, institutions, government and civil society victim support organizations;
• Facilitate effective protection and improve specialist support systems for hate crime victims in criminal proceedings through the promotion of government and civil society collaboration. 

The project takes a victim-centered and gender-mainstreamed approach, and produces tools for improving protection and services for hate crime victims and to build the capacity of service providers. 
 

In 2009, at the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting participating States committed themselves “to provide victims of hate crimes with access to counselling, legal and consular assistance as well as effective access to justice.”    In 2012, the EU adopted the Directive 2012/29establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime (Directive).   The Directive was adopted to improve the Member States’ response to needs of victims and to ensure that victims across the EU enjoy their rights and have equal access to support services. Furthermore, the Directive called on Member States to establish specialized victim support services, either as an integrated part of or in addition to generic victim support service. These services must offer support depending on the type of victim, type of crime, and requires engagement of multiple actors to ensure specialist services are available to victims. 

Despite these commitments and obligations, the recognition that support for victims of crime is a crucial part of a justice system and providing access to support services remains largely insufficient across the OSCE region. This is partly due to inefficient or non-existent structural arrangements (institutional frameworks, guidance, protocols) that would allow provision of comprehensive and effective hate crime victim support. These arrangements require policies such as the provision of State financing to service providers, creation of quality standards and quality control of delivered support services, collaboration platforms between the state and civil society actors and integration of specialist support providers into overall response and support actions within the criminal justice system. In light of this, the EStAR project will develop a “Policy brief on existing structural arrangements, shortcomings and recommendations” for hate crime victim support structures.

The policy brief is primarily aimed at policy- and decision-makers, advisers, analysts and researchers on the international, national and regional levels, responsible for designing, improving or provision of services for victims of crime, and hate crime in particular. It should also provide insight for criminal justice and hate crime victim support practitioners, civil society representatives working with victims of hate crimes and other organization working on issues related to human rights, inclusion and diversity.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

Objectives

  
The principal objectives of the policy brief on existing structural arrangements, shortcomings and recommendations are to:  

• Provide a short overview of existing frameworks and other structural arrangements in provision of hate crime victim support and their shortcomings;
• Provide clear policy recommendations on how the structural arrangements for provision of hate crime victim support can be established or improved;
• Promote closer cooperation between the State institutions and civil society organizations (CSOs) in provision of the targeted and customized hate crime victim support.

Scope of assignment and methodology

The policy brief will outline the need for structural arrangements in provision of an effective hate crime victim support structure and provide a set of clear policy recommendations on how to establish or improve the structural arrangements for a comprehensive policy. Whenever possible, recommendations should take into consideration the perspectives of States where victim support is developed to a lesser extent. Therefore, the paper should:

• Illustrate how the impact of hate crime and the needs of hate crime victims require specific structural arrangements;
• Emphasize the importance of defining hate crime victims and recognizing their specific needs in law and guidance;
• Emphasize that the provision of targeted and tailored hate crime victim support is an element of ensuring justice to hate crime victims and that the responsibility for provision of these services rests upon the States in line with their legal and political international commitments;
• Securing and supporting the existence of specialized hate crime victim support providers including the provision of financing, provision of quality control and quality standards for hate crime victim support services, along with oversight mechanisms;
• Demonstrate synergies between the work of the specialist support services with those of the law enforcement and criminal justice agencies and emphasize the importance of institutionalized platforms of cooperation between the law enforcement, service providers and other criminal justice system actors on individual needs assessments and referral systems and other relevant training efforts; 
• Establishment of protocols and guidance to ensure the sensitive and respectful treatment of hate crime victims in the criminal justice system;

The consultant will be responsible for conducting a literature review, including a review of any recent academic works, as well as publications developed within the EStAR project. The consultant is expected to compliment the research through informative interviews with selected EStAR Expert Network members and other relevant stakeholders in order to inform their work and to further explore the existing structural arrangements for hate crime victim support, if needed.    

The draft policy brief will be subject to revisions by the EStAR team, as well as EStAR Expert Network members. The consultant may also be invited to participate in any of the relevant current EStAR project events organized during the consultancy period in a capacity of an observer.

The EStAR project aims to be inclusive and reflect needs and experiences of all members of society in its tools and resources. Therefore, the “Policy brief on existing structural arrangements, shortcomings and recommendations” should take a gender-sensitive approach and incorporate the experiences and needs of each and every individual, as well as intersectional perspectives. This is to ensure the policy brief itself, and the examples it includes, captures realities of individuals not by focusing on one protected characteristic, but in combination with others, for example gender is not addressed as an isolated category of identification but intersected with protected characteristics such as ethnicity, religion or belief, race, age, legal status, disability, etc. This approach captures the multidimensionality of people’s experiences and identities thus reaffirming a victim-centred approach to hate crime victim support.

All activities carried out by the consultant will take into full consideration the confidentiality of all persons and their data.

Deliverables & indicative work plan

Under the supervision of the ODIHR EStAR Project Officer, the Consultant should submit the following deliverables in accordance with the agreed timeline. ODIHR will review the quality of the deliverables submitted in a timely fashion and request any improvements necessary to reach the professional standards required.

1. Meeting to discuss concept, structure and methodology of the policy brief, and agree on an indicative timeline with deliverable dates  -     0.25 day
2. Conduct a targeted literature review of specialist victim support policy documents and identify elements of the problem, gather evidence to demonstrate the impact of not addressing the problem, offer options for addressing the problem  -   3 days
3. Conduct informative interviews with specialist support providers and/or government experts within and outside the EStAR network to inform formulation of core elements of the policy brief  -    3 days
4. Informed by literature review and interviews, compile good practices from the OSCE pSs of well-functioning structural arrangements in provision of the hate crime victim support  -   1 day
5. Submit a framework outlining the rationale for action on the problem, proposed policy option/s and policy recommendations. Prepare an outline for the policy brief, consisting of a table of contents (without sub-headings) and indication for content to be included in each section -  2 days
6.  Go over EStAR team’s inputs and feedback, agree on adjustments and next steps  -  0.5 day
7.  Prepare First Draft of the policy brief  -     6 days
8. Go over EStAR team’s inputs and feedback, agree on adjustments and next steps – 0.25 day
9. Submit Second Draft for selected EStAR Expert Network Review -      2 days
10. Review inputs and feedback and agree on the final adjustments -     0.5 day 
11. Finalize the policy brief, including by addressing any editorial and formatting issues, ensuring functionality of the links in the Bibliography section and throughout the document, and addressing any other outstanding issues. Submit Final Draft  -     1.5 days 

Total days:    20

Necessary Qualifications, Experience and Skills:

• Second-level university degree in relevant subject e.g. law, social science, human rights or related fields;
• Minimum 6 years of professional experience in the field of hate crime or victim support;
• Experience in conducting research and drafting documents related to hate crime victim support;
• Knowledge of international and European standards in relation to victims’ rights;
• Demonstrated knowledge and commitment to values of gender, diversity and inclusion and proven ability to integrate these perspectives into projects and products; 
• Professional knowledge of English, including previous experience in drafting publications in English;
• Excellent usage of Microsoft applications, including the ability to independently finalize a document for external use.

Remuneration Package:

Remuneration will be based on the selected consultant’s/expert’s qualifications, experience, the tasks and deliverables for this position and in accordance with the OSCE established rates.

If you wish to apply for this position, please use the OSCE's online application link found under https://jobs.osce.org/vacancies.

If you are not a national of a participating State, you must apply by submitting an offline application form which can be found under https://jobs.osce.org/resources/document/offline-application-form.

The OSCE retains the discretion to re-advertise/re-post the vacancy, to cancel the recruitment or to offer an appointment with a modified job description or for a different duration.

Only those candidates who are selected to participate in the subsequent stages of recruitment will be contacted.

The OSCE is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all religious, ethnic and social backgrounds to apply to become a part of the Organization. 

Candidates should be aware that OSCE officials shall conduct themselves at all times in a manner befitting the status of an international civil servant. This includes avoiding any action which may adversely reflect on the integrity, independence and impartiality of their position and function as officials of the OSCE. The OSCE is committed to applying the highest ethical standards in carrying out its mandate. For more information on the values set out in OSCE Competency Model, please see https://jobs.osce.org/resources/document/our-competency-model.

Please be aware that the OSCE does not request payment at any stage of the application and review process.