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.

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the UN Charter, UN Women promotes the advancement of human rights and gender equality is at the heart of UN Women’s work globally. On 1 January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development officially came into force.  The SDGs build on the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and aim to go further to end all forms of poverty. SDG 18 speaks to promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable develop, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and includive institutions at all levels.

In several sociological and anthropological studies undertaken on courts in the Caribbean, deficits such as unpredictability in the application of legal principles, delay and unresponsiveness to the social realities of litigants before the court have been highlighted. Where the studies have looked at issues such as domestic violence and family law, (in particular child support), what is asserted is that these challenges are nuanced by gender both in causative or contributing factors as well as in outcomes. Gender stereotypes about women’s and men’s roles influence judicial decision-making and perpetuate women’s marginalisation and constraining gender roles for men even where this may not be consciously understood by the judicial decision maker.

In 2015 the CEDAW Committee shared General recommendation 33 on Women’s to Justice. The General Recommendation speaks to how to address stereotyping and gender bias in the justice system, education and awareness raising, justiciability, availability, accessibility, good-quality, provision of remedies and accountability of justice systems and recommendations for specific areas of law including constitutional law.

The Judicial Reform and Institutional Strengthening (JURIST) Project is a five year regional Caribbean judicial reform initiative funded under an arrangement with the Government of Canada. The Project is being implemented on behalf of Global Affairs Canada (GAC) (formerly known as the Department of Foreign Affairs Trade and Development (DFATD)) and the Conference of Heads of Judiciary of CARICOM (the Conference), by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which was appointed by the Conference as its Regional Executing Agency (REA).  The Project seeks to improve court administration and the administration of justice by strengthening the ability of the courts and the judiciary to resolve cases effectively and fairly in the Caribbean region. Further, the CCJ and GAC are seeking to integrate key gender equality principles in the implementation of the JURIST Project. To this end, UN Women MCO-Caribbean will partner with the CCJ in promoting improved, gender-responsive court administration and justice, as well as governments and CSOs in the region with implementation of gender responsive access to justice.

Duties and Responsibilities

In consultation with the JURIST Project, and under the overall supervision of the UN Women MCO - Caribbean Representative and the direct supervision of the Deputy Representative, the consultant will be contracted to complete the following:

• Collaborate with the JURIST Gender Officer to develop a Gender Strategy in consultation with pilot country representatives and the Project Management Unit, which will highlight how gender will be mainstreamed through the implementation of the JURIST project including the M&E framework of the JURIST project;
• Develop a justice chain report no longer than 25 pages outlining the better practices and gaps that exists along the justice chain regarding gender-based violence in at least one Caribbean country, which builds on the previously completed baseline report on sexual offences completed for the JURIST project;
• Based on the justice chain report, develop a tool for courts – specifically, a Performance and Accountability Strategy for sexual offence cases to be piloted in one country under the JURIST Project; and
• Support the UN Women Caribbean MCO Office as needed regarding review and development of other access to justice related initiatives in the Caribbean.

Competencies

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Integrity and Fairness:

• 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. Conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results.

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:

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 behaviour towards others;

Conflict management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution;

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

•  A law degree is essential;
• A post graduate degree in international relations, gender, human rights, public administration of another related social science is preferred.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years relevant experience at the national or international level working with development projects providing hands-on experience in the field of human rights and access to justice;
• Experience with CEDAW, Belem do Para and Human Rights;
• At least 2 years experience in the areas of ending violence against women and girls;
• At least 1 year experience in gender and rule of law issues;
• Previous Experience monitoring and evaluating justice chains is an asset; and
• Prior experience in the UN System and the Region will be an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required (written and spoken).

Specific Activities and Deliverables:

• Facilitate meeting with key JURIST country partners to develop gender strategy highlighting how gender will be mainstreamed through the implementation of the JURIST project and monitoring and evaluation;
• Collaborate with the JURIST Gender Officer to draft and finalise the JURIST Gender Strategy in consultation with pilot country representatives and the Project Management Unit highlighting how gender will be mainstreamed through the implementation of the JURIST project including a results matrix;
• Workplan outlining methodology for completing justice chain report. The justice chain report will highlight successes and gaps in selected country/countries’ justice chain and will build on the previously completed baseline study on sexual offences for the JURIST project;
• Interview police, court and judicial officers engaged in the justice chain;
• Submit Draft report outlining findings on better practices and gaps in the justice chain regarding gender-based violence and provide recommendations for how to build on the better practices and address the gaps for review by JURIST and UN Women staff;
• Submit final report outlining findings on better practices and gaps in the justice chain regarding gender-based violence and provide recommendations for how to build on the better practices and address the gaps;
• Review global practice on Court Performance and Accountability tools in dealing with gender based violence;
• After consultation with court and police in jurisdiction submit outline of Court Efficiency Gender Based Violence Framework indicating proposed metholodgy, indicators that reflect internation standards on women’s human rights and the rights of the child;
• Develop presentation on the Court Efficiency Gender Based Violence Framework;
• Finalise the Court Performance and Accountability tool for gender based violence cases for court and police;
• Collaborate with the JURIST Gender Officer to conduct at least 2 train-the-trainer sessions in order to train court staff and policy on how to use the tools developed.

Offical Travel and Other Requisites:

• The consultant will be home based but will be required to take at least one trip to the selected pilot country and to the CCJ HQ.

Timeframes and Institutional Arrangements:

• The consultant will be engaged for a maximum of 70 working days, a minimum of 5 days per month during the period 2 May 2016 – 8 December 2016.

Evaluation Procedure:

The evaluation will follow the subsequent procedure:

Stage 1: Preliminary examination

• Prior to the detailed evaluation of each offer UN Women will undertake a preliminary examination of the offers in order to  determine whether the offers meet the administrative requirements.  UN Women may reject any offer during the preliminary examination which does not comply with the requirements set out in this solicitation document, without further consultation with the bidder. Offers will not be considered for further evaluation in cases where:
  • They are incomplete (i.e. does not include all required data and/or documents as specified);
  • The validity of the offer is not in accordance with the requirements;
  • The technical and financial documents have not been submitted;
  • If the bidder does not accept the correction of arithmetical errors;
  • Offers which are incomplete frivolous, clearly not compatible, or contain material deviations from or reservations to the terms of the contract, may in UN Women´s absolute discretion, be rejected or excluded from further consideration at any time during the evaluation, including after preliminary evaluation.

Stage 2: Technical Evaluation

• The candidates must possess minimum qualification criteria to be eligible for further technical evaluation. Technical evaluation will be as follows:
  • Minimum 5 years relevant experience at the national or international level working with development projects providing hands-on experience in the field of human rights and access to justice; (20 points)
  • Experience with CEDAW, Belem do Para and Human Rights; (15 points)
  • At least 2 years experience in the areas of ending violence against women and girls; (15 points)
  • At least 1 year experience in gender and rule of law issues; (10 points)
  • Previous Experience monitoring and evaluating justice chains is an asset (5 points); and
  • Prior experience in the UN System and the Region will be an asset (5 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 70 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 49 points out of maximum 70 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Stage 3: Financial Evaluation

• Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30;
• S – score received on financial evaluation;
• Fmin – the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;
• F – financial offer under consideration;

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical score + financial score).