War Crime Victim’s Attorney

Background

The RWC Project aims to strengthen the rule of law, transitional justice processes, and reconciliation in the Western Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia) by contributing to the effective fight against impunity for war crimes and raising public awareness about the war time atrocities and individual accountability. This encompasses enhancement of support to victim and witnesses, both across borders and within the countries concerned, as specifically vulnerable  groups of right holders, including support to improvement of the war crimes victims' representation in legal proceedings and harmonisation of processes for fulfilment of their reparation and other rights with highest international standards applicable to victims of violent crimes and, specifically, to victims of war crimes or other mass violations of human rights.

Duties and Responsibilities

The objective of this assignment is to provide legal counselling to and represent as an attorney a victim of war crime for the purpose of the victim’s participation in a war crime criminal proceeding in Montenegro dealing with the event (crime) that directly affected the victim, including, in particular, filing on behalf of the victim legal submissions and requests. 

Acting as a war crime victim’s legal representative with the powers of attorney in Montenegro, the consultant will help a war crime victim obtain her/his rights and protect her/his interest in the case, in line with the Montenegrin legal framework and international legal standards, including the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and other international standards, including those related to victim of violent crimes, especially with regards to victim’s right to reparation. 

The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the RWC project’s Chief Technical Advisor and Programme Manager. In her/his work as the victim’s attorney the consultant will act independently, in line with legislation, rules and regulations applicable to attorneys-at-law and victim’s representatives (proxies) in Montenegro

The assignment of providing legal counselling and legal representation to a war crimes victim in relation to a war crime proceeding in Montenegro shall include the following specific tasks that will be carried out in parallel, based on the dynamics of the case processing as required by the competent prosecution office and court in Montenegro:

• continuously maintaining close and confidential communication with the client (victim of the war crime) and providing all legal advises related to the client’s case in Montenegro;
• filing of legal submissions and undertaking all the necessary legal actions on behalf of the client during the duration of this contract in relation to the client’s (victim’s) war crimes case, in particular the submission of any legal filing in relation to compensation in the criminal case;
• participating as victim’s representative in all the oral discussions, hearings, meetings with court and prosecution officials, before and/or during the trial stage (as the case might be, depending on the progress of the case), in line with criminal procedure rules in Montenegro;
• communication and co-ordination, including providing briefings on developments in the case, with civil society organisations (CSOs) in Montenegro and abroad which have been or are involved in provision of support (psychosocial, legal, and other) to the client (the war crime victim) and/or which are engaged in public advocacy for reparations to war crimes victims.
• preparing final report on undertaken activities.

Timing and reporting: The international consultant will be engaged in the period from 25 January-25 March 2022. The consultant will be responsible to prepare the final report to the UNDP Programme Manager, and it should contain sufficient detail and information that would allow for the appraisal of the effectiveness to date of the assignment’s activities.

Time duration and travel: The Consultant will be engaged under Individual Contract (IC) in the period 25 January-25 March 2022, in duration of 16 consultancy days. The consultant will work in Podgorica, no travel is envisaged.

Competencies

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Good team player with the ability to maintain good relationships.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• University degree in law. 
• Admission to the Bar in Montenegro.

Experience:

• Minimum twelve year of working experience as a lawyer, of which minimum ten years in an attorney-at-law office. 
• Extensive experience in representing clients in human rights cases and cases involving serious crimes (such as torture, murder, war crimes, gross human rights violations)
• Experience in representing clients both before national (Montenegro) and international judicial institutions, including European Court of Human Rights.
• Experience in working or closely co-operating with civil society organisations in Montenegro.
• Proven track record in dealing, as a lawyer, with human rights issues and cases.
• Experience with and good knowledge of functioning of judicial institutions in Montenegro and the European Court of Human Rights.
• Ability to analyse jurisprudence of the courts in the Western Balkans dealing with war crimes cases, human rights, and reparations.

Language:

• Fluency in Montenegrin. Working knowledge of English. 

Other:

• Excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize relevant collected data and findings for the preparation of quality analysis and legal submissions;
• Excellent coordination skills and result-oriented collaboration with colleagues.

Criteria for selection:

Combined Scoring method will be used. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: (i) responsive, compliant, acceptable, and (ii) having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

• Technical criteria weight - 70% (Background and education 10%; Relevant previous experience 20%; Substantial knowledge/Required competencies 30%; Required language 10%);
• Financial criteria weight - 30%.

Only offerors obtaining a minimum 490 points for technical criteria will be considered for the financial evaluation. For more information on procurement methodology for Individual Contractors, please refer to Procurement Notice.

Application procedure:

Interested applicants are requested to submit their applications by January 20, 2022 by using the Apply now button. The application should contain CV or P11 that can be downloaded at https://www.me.undp.org/content/montenegro/en/home/jobs.html. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file.

Only the short-listed applicants will be contacted and requested to submit a letter of interest including a price quotation indicating the lump sum (in EUR) requested for the work envisaged in the section "Description of Responsibilities".