Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Peace and Security is a key area of UN Women's work. At headquarters, the Peace and Security Section leads on UN system-wide coordination on Women, Peace and Security, provides technical and financial support to the peace and security work of UN Women field offices, and implements a number of global initiatives that range from training women on mediation, peacekeepers on preventing and responding to sexual violence, and experts on investigation and documentation of international crimes, to rapidly deploying gender advisors to commissions of inquiry, peace talks, and post-conflict planning and financing processes, supporting gender-responsive public service delivery, and linking women in the community and grassroots organizations to police and other actors to ensure better protection.

A key area of UN Women’s work is ensuring access to justice for women and the equal application of the rule of law. Effective judicial and legal systems not only ensure the protection and advancement of women’s rights, but can provide an enabling environment to address discriminatory practices which impede development. From a women’s human rights and rule of law perspective, at no time is legal protection more necessary, or more fragile, than during and in the immediate aftermath of conflicts when women’s experiences of insecurity and violations often continue unabated. Securing accountability and ending impunity for sexual and gender-based violence and asserting women’s access to the full range of rights are some of the most challenging yet fundamental conditions for the restoration of the rule of law post-conflict.
The Sexual and Gender Based Crimes Specialist will contribute to implementation of UN Women’s mandate on promoting women’s access to justice and the rule of law through providing highly-speciliazed technical support to international accountability mechanisms in training, documentation and investigation of SGBV crimes under international law.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

  • Provide technical support to the work of international accountability bodies supported by UN Women by ensuring that appropriate attention is given to the gendered dimensions of human rights violations, including through gender analysis and training;
  • Act as an advisor to international accountability bodies, liaising with UN Women as appropriate;
  • Ensure proper collection and preservation of information on cases of SGBV and other gender based human rights violations and abuses by international justice mechanisms.
 Description of Functions:
  • Research and collect information pertaining to women’s human rights and gender issues directly related to the mandate of the international mechanism in question, including violations of women’s economic and social rights, political and civil rights as well as sexual and gender-based violence;
  • Analyse existing documentation and propose gender-sensitive investigation methods according to the mandate of the international mechanism in question – including ensuring sure that all investigators are aware of the gendered dimensions of human rights violations, specific vulnerability of different categories of women (girls, mothers, repatriate women, women in prisons and camps, elderly women, disabled), and of how to identify violence against women in private and public settings; that security arrangements are gender-sensitive and that cultural and political gender considerations are duly taken into account;
  • Conduct and/or assist in the conduct of interviews and evidence gathering activities, ensuring that necessary measures of protection and confidentiality for witness and victim of women’s human rights violation are implemented throughout and that the gender-specific impact of violations is assessed;
  • Ensure that the necessary measures of protection and confidentiality for witnesses and victims of SGBV and women’s human rights violations and abuses are implemented, including measures such as working with local women’s organizations;
  • Provide advice, awareness-raising, and inputs to all aspects of the justice mechanisms’ mandate – including ensuring that all investigators are aware of how to identify SGBV crimes, that security arrangements are gender-sensitive, that cultural and contextual gender considerations are considered;
  • Contribute and input into briefings, interview notes and analytical documents as required to ensure adequate attention to women’s human rights and gender issues;
  • Contribute to the drafting of the investigation outcome document and final report, reflecting a gender perspective and gender-sensitive language throughout the reports; this includes: ensuring that the establishment of facts and qualification of crimes reflect gender dimensions, including when addressing sexual and gender-based violence.
  • Prepare an internal report for UN Women reflecting on the work of the gender adviser and any recommendations for strengthening such the gendered work of such bodies in future;
  • Perform any other duties, as required by the Chief Adviser, Peace and Security, UN Women.
Impact of Results:

Investigation procedures of all international accountability mechanisms UN Women support reflect good practice in the investigation of SGBV cases; gender-sensitive approaches; full documentation of violations of women’s rights under international law; and advance women’s access to justice.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

  • Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
  • Professionalism:Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work;
  • Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.
Core Competencies:
  • Ethics and Values:Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity;
  • Organizational Awareness:Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment ;
  • Work in teams:Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds;
  • Communicating and Information Sharing: Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication;
  • Self-management and Emotional Intelligence: Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others;
  • Conflict Management: Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution;
  • Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge;
  • Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.
Functional Competencies:
  • Proven ability to conduct complex human rights investigations, including expertise in monitoring and documenting SGBV and understanding of gender-specific protection concerns;
  • Strong expertise in women’s human rights and gender dimension of human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights and sexual and gender-based violence;
  • Good analytical capacity; solid knowledge in witness and victim protection and data protection; trained in management of data;
  • Demonstrated People Management Skills;
  • Ability to speak and write in a clear manner including ability to draft a variety of reports; correspondence using gender-sensitive language; familiarity with the UN system and good knowledge of UN Women will be valuable.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Advanced degree in law, human rights or a related field.
Experience:
  • Minimum 7 years experience in the area of gender justice, international justice and criminal processes, with specific expertise in investigations of SGBV crimes;
  • Experience in programming and familiarity with the UN is an asset;
  • Experience in a conflict-affected setting preferred.
Languages:
  • Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of other UN languages is desirable.

Important Application Information:
  • All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
  • Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
  • UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.
Note:

In July 2010, the United nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.