Human Rights Officer

The Human Rights Officer will lead the management and implementation of human rights work in the assigned area under the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. The role involves planning, coordinating, and leading activities related to human rights mandates, advocacy, reporting, and team management in a challenging and non-family duty station.

Responsibilities

• Leads the management and implementation of the human rights work in the assigned area, in accordance with the UNAMA Human Rights Service workplan, and management of Team members.
• Plans, coordinates and leads activities related to the UNAMA's human rights mandate, including from a gender perspective, inter alia protection of civilians, right to life, liberty and integrity; issues related to the rights of women, children, persons deprived of their liberty, human rights defenders, media workers, and other vulnerable groups; and monitoring of fundamental freedoms and the economic, social and cultural rights situation in the mission area.
• Devises advocacy strategies, advocates and advises relevant de facto authorities, civil society, the UN Country Team (UNCT) on strategies to better protect and promote human rights, and mechanisms to stop impunity and redress human rights violations in the mission area.
• Establishes and maintains contact with de facto authorities, armed groups, civil society, UN Agencies, Funds, and Programmes with complementary mandates and other relevant partners to inform on the human rights situation in the mission area and advise on strategic and policy issues to better protect and promote human rights.
• Supports a human-rights based approach in the design and implementation of UNAMA's preventive diplomacy, good offices, and other initiatives, as appropriate.
• Drafts, reviews and coordinates the timely delivery of a variety of reports, briefings and other types of communication and products in compliance with established standards, including with regard to public human rights reports.
• Works directly with other components of the UN peace operation to integrate human rights considerations into the planning and review of their programmes and operations, including through developing procedures and policies, as appropriate.
• Designs, delivers, coordinates and evaluates human rights awareness-raising initiatives for national and subnational stakeholders.
• Ensures, coordinates and supervises the timely entry of accurate and verified human rights cases into an established database; conducts quality control; and delivers statistics and trend reports, as required.
• Contributes to the integration of gender perspectives/considerations and specific women/girls' rights issues in all activities, programmes and strategies.
• Assists in the coordination and implementation of the Human Rights Service work plan, evaluates or assists in the evaluation of its progress, and suggests adjustments as needed.
• Represents the UNAMA Human Rights Service at meetings and thematic events related to the UNAMA human rights mandate in the region of assignment.
• Collect and analyzes data to identify trends or patterns and provides insights through graphs, charts, tables and reports using data visualization methods to enable data-driven planning, decision making, presentation and reporting.
• Performs other related duties as required.

Requirements

• An advanced university degree (Master's or Doctorate degree, or equivalent) in law, human rights, political science, international relations, social sciences, humanities or related fields is required.
• A first-level degree (Bachelor's degree or equivalent) in the specified fields of studies with two additional years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in human rights, including from a gender perspective, is required, particularly on: protection of civilians, right to life, liberty and integrity; issues related to the rights of women, children, persons deprived of their liberty, human rights defenders, media workers, and other vulnerable groups; fundamental freedoms; and economic, social and cultural rights.
• A minimum of three years of experience in leading and conducting human rights fact-finding missions in a UN peace operation, UN human rights presence or equivalent international organisation – outside the country of origin – is required.
• At least three years of experience in leading, managing and supervising a multicultural team is required.
• At least three years of experience in human rights case / data management and analytics, human rights analysis and drafting public reports, including legal drafting, is required.
• Experience working in Afghanistan is desirable.
• English is required at UN Level III for reading, writing, listening and speaking.
• Either Dari or Pashto is desirable at UN Level I for reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Skills

• Human Rights Protection
• Gender Perspective
• Protection of Civilians
• Rights of Women
• Rights of Children
• Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty
• Human Rights Defenders Protection
• Media Workers Rights
• Fundamental Freedoms
• Economic Social Cultural Rights
• Human Rights Fact-Finding
• United Nations Peace Operations
• Human Rights Case Management
• Human Rights Data Analytics
• Human Rights Analysis
• Legal Drafting
• Public Reporting
• Team Leadership
• Multicultural Team Leadership

Languages

English, Dari, Pashto