Chief, Law and Justice Section (S3)

The Chief of the Law and Justice Section (LJS) oversees the Section's core functions including monitoring, legal and policy engagement, institutional engagement, reporting, advocacy and programmatic delivery. The role involves coordinating and directing teams, managing budgets, and representing the Mission at high-level fora, ensuring integration of human rights and rule of law priorities in Kosovo.

Responsibilities

• Co-ordinating and directing LJS short- and mid-term strategy across the Section's core functions, ensuring the integration of communities, gender, youth, and human rights considerations, in line with the strategic priorities of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo and the Human Rights and Communities Department.
• Liaising with other programmatic sections of the Department, Regional Centres and LJS field staff, as well as other departments and offices of the Mission, to ensure a coherent approach to LJS activities.
• Designing and implementing relevant LJS advocacy and projects, ensuring coherence and effectiveness, and overseeing monitoring and internal evaluation.
• Providing substantive legal and policy oversight on issues falling within the LJS mandate, including advice to Mission senior management and engagement with relevant external counterpart.
• Conceptualising, editing, and overseeing the drafting of all LJS regular, thematic, and ad hoc reports, and clearing all LJS external outputs.
• Chairing relevant advocacy meetings with local and international stakeholders, advancing LJS priorities and advocating for LJS findings and recommendations, and ensuring co-ordination across projects.
• Representing the Mission at high-level fora, donor meetings, and inter-agency co-ordination platforms on matters falling under the LJS mandate.
• Contributing to Mission-wide and departmental strategic planning, ensuring LJS priorities are reflected in broader institutional frameworks.
• Meeting with officials of Kosovo institutions and other relevant counterparts and engaging on issues falling under the LJS mandate.
• Handling all staff management matters, including recruitment, performance management, disciplinary processes, and training for LJS staff.
• Performing other duties as required.

Requirements

• Second-level university degree/certified training course in law or significant work experience in criminal justice and/or law enforcement. A first-level university degree in combination with two years of additional qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the second-level university degree.
• Minimum 6 years of relevant, diversified and progressively responsible professional experience including at least 3 years at the management level relevant to the actual position.
• International mission members in the OSCE are internationally recruited and must not be nationals or permanent residents of the duty station.
• Second-level university degree in law.
• At least 10 years of courtroom experience (as a prosecutor, judge, advocate/lawyer, judicial clerk, or trial monitor) or in judicial reform, capacity building, or advocacy with human rights institutions (such as an Ombudsperson institution or National Human Rights Institution (NHRI)), dealing with human rights.
• Knowledge of International Law or European Law and international and regional human rights treaties, conventions, and standards.
• Experience in drafting, editing, and commenting on legal documents.
• Demonstrated experience in planning, managing, and overseeing complex multi-stakeholder projects, including budget formulation, monitoring, and reporting, in a human rights or rule of law context; at least 5 years required.
• At least 5 years of experience managing and supervising multi-disciplinary teams, including in geographically dispersed or field-based environments; demonstrated ability to motivate staff, manage performance, and foster a collaborative and accountable team culture.
• Demonstrated capacity for tact, discretion, and constructive stakeholder engagement, including the ability to build consensus, negotiate diplomatically, and maintain productive working relationships with senior government officials, international partners, and civil society counterparts.
• Ability to operate Windows applications, including word processing and e-mail.
• Professional fluency in the English language.
• Demonstrated ability and willingness to work as a member of a team with people of different cultural and religious backgrounds, different gender, and diverse political views, while maintaining impartiality and objectivity.
• Demonstrated cultural sensitivity and sound judgement with respect to local conditions and communities.
• Flexibility and ability to work under pressure and within limited time frames.
• Desirable: Previous work experience with international organizations, including the UN, the OSCE, or government agencies and development partners focused on human rights and rule of law.
• Desirable: Previous work experience in Kosovo or the Western Balkans, or knowledge of the regional political context and applicable legal framework.
• Desirable: Experience with monitoring, reporting, and advocacy methodologies in an international human rights or rule of law context.
• Desirable: Previous field work experience.

Skills

• Criminal Justice
• Law Enforcement
• Courtroom Experience
• Judicial Reform
• Human Rights Advocacy
• International Law
• EU Law
• Human Rights Treaties
• Legal Drafting
• Legal Document Editing
• Project Management
• Budget Formulation
• Budget Monitoring
• Stakeholder Coordination
• Team Management
• Performance Management
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Diplomatic Negotiation
• Windows-based Applications
• Word Processing
• Email Communication

Languages

English