Human Rights Officer (Special Assistant)

The Human Rights Officer (Special Assistant) provides direct support to the Director of the Thematic and Special Procedures Division, including strategic planning, reporting, advocacy, and guidance on thematic human rights issues. The role involves monitoring implementation of international human rights instruments, supporting treaty bodies and special procedures, preparing reports, coordinating with UN and non-governmental programs, and supervising junior staff.

Responsibilities

• Provide direct and timely support to the Director including strategic planning, reporting, advocacy and guidance on thematic human rights issues.
• Review, monitor and evaluate activities relating to the implementation of international human rights instruments, including recommendations of treaty bodies and Human Rights Council mechanisms.
• Support the work of treaty-established bodies, extra-conventional mechanisms and special procedures.
• Prepare relevant human rights parts of reports for the General Assembly, Human Rights Council, and notes on ratification status of human rights instruments.
• Work with UN and non-governmental programmes to integrate human rights and gender dimensions in their programs; help design and implement human rights programs and evaluations.
• Ensure up-to-date information on substantive human rights matters and make recommendations on actions.
• Coordinate and liaise with other UN sectors, international organizations and governments on policy matters; brief representatives and provide recommendations.
• Collect and analyze data to identify trends or patterns for data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting.
• Train and supervise new and junior staff.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in law, political science, international relations, social sciences or related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in human rights, political affairs, international relations, law or related area is required.
• Experience working within the human rights system on a range of rights and regions is required.
• Experience in UN system-wide processes or inter-agency collaboration on human rights is required.
• Experience with human rights activities and operations in the field is required.
• Experience in advising senior leadership on strategic implementation of thematic human rights mandates is required.
• Experience in strategic planning and/or results-based programming is desirable.
• English language proficiency at UN Level III (reading, writing, listening, speaking) is required.
• French language proficiency at UN Level II (reading, writing, listening, speaking) is desirable.

Skills

• Human Rights Monitoring
• International Human Rights Law
• Strategic Planning
• Results-based Programming
• UN System Coordination
• Interagency Collaboration
• Thematic Human Rights Mandates
• Advocacy
• Report Preparation
• Treaty Body Support
• Special Procedures Support
• Field Human Rights Operations
• Advising Senior Management
• Political Affairs
• International Relations
• Legal Analysis
• Program Coordination
• Staff Supervision

Languages

English, French