UNDP Jobs - 50787- International Consultant on the Investigation of C

International Consultant on the Investigation of Cases of Torture in Mental Health Facilities

Location :

Chisinau, MOLDOVA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

10-Nov-2014

Application Deadline :

02-Nov-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Up to 25 working days

Languages Required :

English French Russian

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Up to 25 working days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Moldova signed the EU-Moldova Visa Liberalization Action Plan, in which it committed to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2011-2014, which contains commitments to prevent and combat all acts of torture and ill-treatment. The Justice Sector Reform Strategy 2011-2016 was adopted addressing the problem of torture in its Pillar VI. Related priorities and commitments are established under the UN-Moldova Partnership Framework (UNPF) 2013-2017, which addresses a number of human rights issues, including torture and ill-treatment and a need to secure the rights of the most vulnerable. Additionally, there are a number of international recommendations on combating torture and related ill-treatment in Moldova, many of which still need to be implemented. In spite of these recommendations and international commitments, torture and related ill-treatment remains to be a grave human rights violation in Moldova with not all of the aspects of this violation addressed properly and impunity for torture and related ill-treatment remaining one of the most acute problems.

The problem of torture and ill-treatment in mental health facilities is an emerging issue in Moldova, which has not been adequately addressed both in legislation and practice in spite of numerous complaints from the part of persons affected by it. Thus, the pilot Ombudsperson in psychiatric institutions, who is tasked with providing legal consultancy and drafting monitoring reports on the situation in psychiatric hospitals and neurological internats (care homes), has received in October 2012 – July 2013 (during 9 months of her work) 5622 complaints from 1474 institutionalised persons (960 women and 514 men), all of whom complained about several violations, including 281 complaints (5%) on physical abuse, 674 (12%) – on lack of information about treatment, 955 (17%) – on lack of informed consent on institutionalization and treatment, etc. In addition to this, the Center for Human Rights (CHR) and the National Torture Preventive Mechanism (NPM) have released monitoring reports on several psychiatry institutions listing a number of problems, including the complaints of institutionalized persons on ill-treatment from the part of staff persons of the institutions. The ECtHR found that Moldova violated ECHR Art. 3 (in terms of inhumane treatment) and Art. 5 (in terms of deprivation of liberty) in two psychiatry related cases: David vs. Moldova and Gorobet vs. Moldova.

In Moldova the investigation of torture allegations falls under the exclusive competence of prosecutors, in particular the prosecutors of the Torture Combatting Section of the General Prosecutor’s Office. A number of previous interventions have focused on strengthening the skills and capacities of prosecutors to investigate torture and related ill-treatment cases in so-called “classical” context of interrogation, punishment or intimidation of a detainee. Special Guidelines for prosecutors on the investigation of torture and related ill-treatment in mental health facilities shall constitute a valuable support for the effective and prompt investigation of torture and related ill-treatment allegations by providing them with methodologies, tips and useful suggestions.

The overall objective of the “Support to Justice Sector Reform in Moldova” project is to strengthen and support the comprehensive efforts to reform the justice sector in the Republic of Moldova achieving the independence, accountability, impartiality, efficiency and transparency of justice system in line with the Justice Sector Reform Strategy (2011 – 2016) and its Action Plan. The project seeks to further strengthen the capacities of national stakeholders in the Justice Sector Reform Strategy implementation in specific areas with the focus on the tangible and visible results both for the target groups involved and the broader public. The project will also address activities that are equally important for a steady progress in the implementation of the reform, but had not received a relevant attention yet.

Duties and Responsibilities

The scope of work of the International Consultant will be:

Providing expertise for drafting of Methodological Guidelines for prosecutors on the investigation of cases of torture and related ill-treatment against women and men in mental health facilities taking into account gender sensitive aspects;
Providing expertise during training for prosecutors and defence lawyers, and during meetings with NGOs on specific aspects of documenting and investigating allegations of torture and related ill-treatment against women and men in mental health institutions taking into account gender sensitive aspects (include issues on UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities anti-torture requirements, informed consent, restraints and seclusion, forced detention, pain treatment, overmedication, forced medical interventions, etc.).

In order to achieve the objectives and to implement the abovementioned activities the International Consultant shall:

Provide professional expertise on the international experience and best practices for the investigation of torture and related ill-treatment against women and men in mental health facilities taking into account gender sensitive aspects;
Identify issues and concerns of the relevant actors (e.g., prosecutors, defence lawyers, judges, NGOs and persons with mental and psycho-social disabilities) in terms of investigation of cases of torture and related ill-treatment in mental health facilities and propose solutions to the identified issues;
Provide professional inputs for drafting Methodological Guidelines for prosecutors on the investigation of cases of torture and related ill-treatment in mental health facilities based on the international experience and best practices.

Contribute to the training courses for prosecutors and defence lawyers, including:

For one training course for prosecutors and one training course for defence lawyers - develop and prepare in a timely manner presentations and facilitate further exercises/discussions on the international experience and best practices for the investigation of torture and related ill-treatment against women and men in mental health facilities taking into account gender sensitive aspects;
For meeting with NGOs - develop and prepare in a timely manner a presentation and facilitate further discussions on the international experience and best practices for the investigation of torture and related ill-treatment against women and men in mental health facilities taking into account gender sensitive aspects;
Cooperate with national counterparts (General Prosecutor`s Office, Patients’ Advocate in psychiatry institutions, people with intellectual and psycho-social disabilities) and a group of national consultants for the purposes of the assignment;
Develop and present a final report on the consultancy undertaken;
Undertake other tasks related to the assignment as requested.

Competencies

Demonstrated commitment to the core values of the United Nations; in particular, is respectful of differences of culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, age, HIV status, disability, and sexual orientation, or other status;
Professional understanding of the issue of torture and related ill-treatment in the context of investigation and prevention;
Understanding of issues of torture and related ill-treatment investigation in mental health facilities would be a strong asset;
Excellent communication, presentation skills, ability to facilitate discussions;
IT skills including word processing, presentation software and use of other relevant applications.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s Degree or equivalent (5-year university education) in Law, Human Rights, Medicine or other relevant field.

Experience:

At least 4 years of proven professional experience in the area of prevention and/or investigation of cases of torture and related ill-treatment;
Experience of working on the prevention and investigation of torture and related ill-treatment within prosecutor office, judiciary, national torture preventive mechanism (NPM), regional and/or international torture related courts, human rights bodies and NGOs, relevant UN treaty bodies and special procedures, is a strong asset;
Experience in working on similar assignments, including successful experience in working with UN agencies, international non-governmental or intergovernmental organisations, is a strong asset;
Experience in analysing, generalizing and systematizing information, drafting studies.

Language:

Fluency in English, Russian or French;
Knowledge of Romanian is an asset.

Application procedure

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information in English, Russian or French to demonstrate their qualifications:

Cover letter:

Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work, incl. a list of assignments and/or analytical documents on the issue of investigation of torture and related ill-treatment cases in mental health facilities (if available), reports, methodologies, presentations, capacity building activities, or other task related documents the applicant has elaborated or contributed to;
Providing a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work;
Financial proposal as a lump sum in US Dollars, preferably split per each deliverable (which includes the fee, and all travel costs for mission to Moldova). For detailed information on travel requirements, please, refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference;
Personal information (as a detailed CV or as a Personal History Form/P11) including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and concrete outputs obtained, including 3 reference persons and their contacts.

Note

To submit applications and for complete information about this vacancy, including detailed tasks and responsibilities, full and detailed description of the evaluation procedure which will be applied, as well as the UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract, please refer to the Terms of Reference, the Individual Consultant Procurement Notice published at the UNDP Moldova website, Jobs Section: http://www.undp.md/jobs/current_jobs/.