Associate Protection Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 by the UN General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safe-guard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country (www.unhcr.org). The UNHCR Representation in Venezuela has Country Office in Caracas, Field Unit in Caracas and four Field Offices of which three are located on the border with Colombia (Guasdualito, San Cristóbal and Maracaibo) and one in Ciudad Guyana (Bolivar state), which covers the border with Brazil, Guyana, and the Caribbean.

Context

Venezuela is facing a critical political, social and economic crisis resulting in hyperinflation, shortages of food, medicine and basic supplies, and deterioration of health, education and basic infrastructure such as water, electricity, transport and urban services that has severely affected most of the country’s population of nearly 30 million persons. Drastic reduction in production capacities in the agricultural, pharmaceutical and other sectors have further aggravated the supply situation. In addition, the protection risks of the population are growing. The country faces high levels of insecurity with an increase in homicides and extortion. Since mid-2018, the Government has expressed its interest to increase cooperation with the UN to mitigate the effects of the crisis. During the first half of 2019, the UN set up a humanitarian coordination architecture in line with international standards. The structure includes the designation of the Humanitarian Coordinator who leads the Humanitarian Country Team for strategic decision making, the activation of eight thematic clusters, including the Protection and Shelter, Energy and NFIs Clusters directly led by UNHCR, and four field coordination hubs to ensure the effective delivery of assistance to the people in need. In July 2020, a Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) covering a period until December 2020 was published, under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator and the Humanitarian Country team in cooperation with Clusters Coordinators. In the context of a scale up of UNHCR activities in Venezuela, the position will support the protection cluster Coordination Teams in the framework of the United Nations humanitarian structure for Venezuela. The Protection Cluster englobes over hundred-member organizations, making it one of the largest in the cluster system for Venezuela. In addition to the national level, the Protection Cluster has sub-national structures with participation in the CCTs of Zulia, Táchira and Bolivar. UNHCR Heads of Field Office in Maracaibo, San Cristobal and Ciudad Guyana double-hat as Cluster Coordinators at sub-national level. The Protection Clúster also incorporates two Areas of Responsibility specifically dedicated to child protection and gender-based violence that are coordinated by UNICEF and UNFPA respectively. Also these two AdRs have a sub-national structure in Zulia, Táchira and Bolivar. In line with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Centrality of Protection statement 2013 and the IASC Policy on Protection in Humanitarian Action 2016, the Venezuela Protection Cluster Strategy seeks to re-affirm that protection is a collective responsibility of all Humanitarian actors requiring the commitment of all partners that are part of the Protection Cluster including the two AoRs of GBV and Child Protection. It aims to address the most significant protection risks faced by affected populations that impact the entire humanitarian system in Venezuela, requiring common position, joint response and advocacy by the Protection Custer throughout the humanitarian programme cycle. It articulates and identifies the complementary roles and responsibilities among humanitarian actors that are part of the Protection Cluster to contribute to protection outcomes, by using all available tools and mechanisms to effectively protect vulnerable population in Venezuela

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the Senior Cluster Coordination Officer (Protection) , the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: • Through relationships with persons of concern, authorities and network of partners stay abreast of political, social, economic and cultural developments that have an impact on the protection environment and provide advice to senior management. • Ensure that the perspectives, capacities, needs and resources of the persons of concerns are reflected in the protection strategy, planning processes and operations plan addressing the specific protection needs of women and men, children, youth and older persons, persons with disabilities, minority groups such as sexual minorities and persons living with HIV/AIDS; • Utilize the IDPs footprint during the planning process; • Coordinate the promotion of international refugee law principles and standards and also IDP legislation or policies ensuring that all sectors and clusters fulfill their responsibilities mainstreaming protection; • Coordinate the implementation and monitoring of programmes ensuring that identified protection needs, including an Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) approach, are adequately addressed; • Provide policy guidance and operational support to UNHCR and partners on all protection related issues; • Provide legal advice and guidance on protection issues to internal and external interlocutors; ensure legal assistance is accessible to persons of concern; liaise with competent authorities to ensure the issuance of personal and other relevant documents to persons of concern (civil documentation, in particular birth certificates); • Monitor, and assist with the intervention in cases of refoulement, expulsion and other protection incidents through working relations with governments and other partners; • Assist in the coordinated implementation and oversight of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all protection/solutions activities; • Ensure that durable solutions through voluntary repatriation, local integration and where appropriate, resettlement are sought and provided to the largest possible number of per-sons of concern; • Ensure through direct action and advocacy with more senior protection staff that the necessary resources are allocated to enable protection activities to identify and address protection and assistance gaps; • Support a consultative process with government counterparts at local levels, partners and persons of concern to develop and implement integrated strategies that address the key protection priorities, including, for example, child protection, education and SGBV, and solutions approaches; • Promote confidence building and conflict resolution among populations of concern, authorities and host communities; • Maintain protection presence through regular field missions and reports, making direct contact with persons of concern, host communities, local authorities and partners. In operations applying the humanitarian cluster system, contribute to ensuring that the response of the Protection Cluster is grounded in an AGD-compliant strategy which covers all assessed and prioritized protection needs of the affected populations; • Contribute to the Protection team's information management component which: provide disaggregated data on populations of concern and their problems; researches, collects and disseminates relevant protection information and good practices to enhance protection delivery and provide technical advice if necessary; • Ensure participatory, community-based protection and AGD approaches are included in, strategies and plans in the country operation; • Support persons of concern to develop structures that enhance their participation and protection. • Establish a protection referral system to support effective case management. • Enhance coordination and synergies among protection cluster’s partners, facilitate dialogue and fllow of information. • Implement the Protection Monitorin Tool and on a three monthly bases prepare Protection Monitoring Analises. • Regularly visit partners and elaborate success stories that will be published on different media platforms. • Prepare Protection Cluster information products. • Regularly update the Protection Custer strategy and workplans. • Promote the centrality of protection by ensuring that that leadership, coordination, and engagement in all sectors is more strategic, aligned and directed toward a stronger response. Results/Expected Outputs: • Protection strategies are developed covering all different persons of concern; • Specific protection needs are identified and addressed; • International refugee law standards and principles are enacted and respected; • Legal advice and guidance on protection issues are provided; • Durable solutions are provided to the largest number of refugees and IDPs • Countries in the region maintain regular contacts; • The participation of persons of concern is assured through continuous assessment and evaluation using participatory, rights and community based approaches, which inform protection and assistance programming; • National protection capacities are improved through direct engagement, research and advocacy with all relevant external interlocutors; • Protection incidents and needs are immediately identified and addressed through direct intervention, advocacy and public exposure; • Coordination with partners and other humanitarian actors is effectively maintained;