UNDP Jobs - 56493- Strengthening Access to Justice, Rule of Law and H

Strengthening Access to Justice, Rule of Law and Human Rights Protection: Facilitate and Advice National Institutions on the Process of Drafting the Country II Cycle UPR Report, in an Inclusive Manner

Location :

Maputo, MOZAMBIQUE

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Jun-2015

Application Deadline :

26-May-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Six months

Languages Required :

English Portuguese

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Six months

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

Justice, Rule of Law and Human Rights are fundamental prerequisites for social and economic development;
A more effective and accessible Justice System contributes to reducing poverty levels and strengthening democratic governance;
In the absence of Access to Justice for all citizens (irrespective of gender, race, religion, age, class or creed), basic rights can be systematically violated with impunity;
poor and marginalized citizens are deprived of opportunities;
and their voice in decision making is not heard;
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) can be considered the most accepted and well recognized international protection of human rights’ mechanism;
The UPR was put in place during the transition from the Human Rights Commission to the Human Rights Council, and consists of a state-driven and comprehensive review of the human rights situation in each Country;
UNDP and the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs of Mozambique (MJC) have partnered in support to Access to Justice and Human Rights since 2000;
Projects implemented in the last decade have produced visible results and have supported the introduction of a new philosophy leading to improved service delivery in the justice context;
Such philosophy includes in a few districts the one-stop-shop approach to service delivery embodied in the Palaces of Justice where all the Criminal Justice institutions are located in the same building;
This has been gradually allowing for pursuing the goal of simplifying a criminal justice process that so far has been too complicated as it has been generally offered in different geographical areas and distant buildings and therefore inaccessible to citizens in decentralized areas;
By constructing and equipping Palaces of Justice at the District level, focus is being given to supporting disadvantaged groups and work with beneficiaries often marginalized by those aid-programs that work only at national level;
The 2012-2015 UNDAF builds, in its section related to support to vulnerable groups, on lessons learned in the last decade by UNDP and 8 more agencies, setting common objectives and complementary tasks.

To contribute to the joint goals of strengthening access to justice, security and human rights protection UNDP agreed with its UN partners and the Government of Mozambique to focus on 4 main priorities:

1) Supporting the process of introducing or strengthening innovative justice instruments (such as alternatives to imprisonment, existing Palaces of Justice and free legal aid);
2) Increasing the awareness of vulnerable groups on human rights and justice services and;
3) Supporting the establishment of the National Commission on Human Rights;
4) The agreed objectives are coherent with the strategic goals set by the Mozambican Justice Sector in the “Plano Estratégico Integrado da Justiça 2009-2014” (PEI) as well as the “Plano Nacional de Protecção e Promoção dos Direitos Humanos” (PNPPDH), the “Programa Nacional de Acção 2010-2014” and the 2011-2014 PARP;
While providing support across the entire spectrum of the Justice System continuum and devoting efforts to building the capacity of all Justice Institutions in need, a decision was made to choose specific and realistically achievable outputs for each of the aforementioned priority areas;
In pursuing such outputs, specific attention will be given, whenever possible, to produce results at the decentralized level by working in selected districts;
In February 2011 Mozambique’s Human Rights record was reviewed as part of the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council;
The agreed 161 recommendations that stemmed from this process overlap to a great extent with the objectives set in the National Human Rights Action Plan, a reference document for the entire Government (draft finalized in August with the help of UNDP);
Supporting the implementation of these two reference frameworks is a common goal for all those agencies which contribute to the UNDAF chapter dedicated to enhancing respect for human rights;
While pursuing this general goal the project intends to give specific attention to supporting the establishment of a National Human Rights Institution.

The adoption of Law nº 33/2009 of 22 December 2009, introduced in the legal system of Mozambique the Comissão Nacional dos Direitos Humanos (CNDH), an Institution with the mandate to:

1) promote and protect Human Rights in Mozambique;
2) be the leading agency in conducting Human Rights awareness campaigns;
3) cooperate with the competent authorities to promote respect of Human Rights and 4) interact with citizens by collecting their complaints and investigating them.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:
Letter of confirmation of Interest in the assignment;
Personal CV, indicating past experience, contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate, and at least 3 references;
Submission of a completed UNDP Personal History (P11) form is required;
Submit a Technical Proposal clearly stating the reasons why the individual considers him/herself to be most suitable for the assignment; The Technical Proposal must also highlight how the consultant will efficiently and effectively articulate this assignment in the context of these ToRs, methodology to do the assignment.

Financial proposal:

Lump sum contracts

Detailed financial proposal: Lump sum offer with clear breakdown (Consultancy fee, travel, and per diem – if applicable). The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR);
The present consultant work is expected to be delivered in a period of 6 months, including submission and approval of final report.

Travel:

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal;
This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel;
In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket;
Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources;
In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation

Evaluation Matrix & Issuance of Contract

All Proposals shall be evaluated using the Evaluation Matrix below:

# Criteria Weight Maximum Point

Technical 70% 100

Eligibility criteria (25 points in total):

Relevance of education/Degree (Master’s Degree in law, international relations, or any equivalent) – 3;
A minimum of three (3) years of professional experience in the area of human rights or related work – 7;
Excellent knowledge of the UPR process, Treaty bodies and experience in their implementation – 8;
Adequacy of competencies for the assignment – 5;
Excellent writing skills in English and working knowledge of Portuguese – 2.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (45 points in total):

Proposal meet the objectives of understanding the country Human Rights context may help the consultants work and advising the National Institutions on best practices, lessons learned, and challenges in the framework of the UPR implementation and reporting – 25;
Set achievable targets to meet expected outputs – 20;
Financial - 30%;
Price shall be the overriding factor for the issuance of the contract which shall be issued to the most suitably qualified candidate who would have presented the most appropriate proposal and had earned a minimum score of 70 points of the overall desirable of this ToR according to the Evaluation Matrix above;
In order to objectively evaluate all subjective elements of the ToRs in the most effective manner, a sliding scale shall be applied to each relevant score per indicator in order to determine the final cumulative weight for the proposals submitted.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work, responsibilities and description of the proposed analytical work:

The main objective of the consultancy is the facilitation and advice to national counterparts on the process of drafting the country II cycle UPR Report, in an inclusive manner;

Expected Outputs:

The work of the consultant will include, but will not be necessarily limited to the provision of the following deliverables:
1 Methodological initial report (work methodology, staffing, list of institutions / individuals to meet etc. Work plan, indicating the timetable for the tasks to be conducted and by whom;) - 14th day of consultancy;
2 Midterm report following submission of the National Human Rights Commission UPR report to HRC (including lessons learned, next steps for work with the National Human Rights Institution, civil society and Ministry of Justice) - 1st week of August;
3 (After submission of the Mozambique Government UPR report) Final report on the consultancy with relevant recommendations on the follow up actions by UNDP CO and by the Government of Mozambique; One week before the end of contract;
The deliverables must be approved by MJCR before submission to UNDP;
A draft final report on the consultancy must be discussed with the MJCR and with UNDP before the final report is complete.

Institutional Arrangement and Duty Station:

The consultant will be based in Maputo, Mozambique, and will be accommodated both at the UNDP/MJCR project site with frequent assistance to the Departamento dos Direitos Humanos (NDHRC), and the National Human Rights Commission (half day for each);
The consultant shall cater for his/her own transport needs, except for wok related needs, which will be provided by the project;
While the working hours may often be irregular, the consultant’s worktime will be that applicable for Public Services in Mozambique, which currently is from 07:30AM and 03:30PM, with 30 minutes break for lunch, from Monday to Friday;
The consultant will report to the UNDP Country Director.

Duration of the Work:

The duration of the contract will be for 6 months, starting on 1 June 2015;
A detailed plan for the mission should be included in the methodological initial report, which should be revised based on CO, project team and IP inputs.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
Self-development, initiative-taking;
Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
Creating synergies through self-control;
Managing conflict;
Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others;
Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
Informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

Excellent knowledge of the UPR, Treaty bodies and experience in their implementation;
Excellent writing skills, including the ability to convey complex concepts and recommendations, in clear style tailored to match the audience;
Ability to work with and/or provide advise to Government institutions in the area of human rights;
Ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor own work plan and to carry out tasks to achieve results;
Proven ability to work under pressure and produce outputs that are accurate, timely and of high quality;
Capacity to organize and facilitate meetings; excellent oral and written communication;
Self-motivated, good sense of humor combined with seriousness on quality and timeliness of work;
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, team oriented work style, interest and experience of working in multi-cultural environment, with sensitivity and respect for diversity.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent), preferably but not necessarily in law, international relations or related fields.

Experience:

A minimum of 3 years of professional experience in the area of human rights or related work, with specific focus on the UPR process.

Languages:

Fluency in English;
Working knowledge of Portuguese.