Background

Purpose

Provide substantial support to the Regional War Crimes (RWC) project – Western Balkans to strengthen capacity of national judicial institutions, especially in Serbia, to investigate and process war crimes cases and enhance their cross-border (regional) co-operation, as well as to ensure follow-up and sustainable support to the national judicial institutions.

Objective

With the aforementioned purpose, provide substantial expertise and support to the RWC project to identify and address capacity development needs of the Serbian prosecutorial, court and other state institutions responsible for dealing with war crimes, with the new Serbian War Crimes Strategy as a reference point, to take stock of the results and experiences, assess progress, and identify gaps and problems in war crimes case processing and cross-border judicial co-operation in the region, and to contribute to developing follow-up UNDP projects.

Background Information

War crimes and other atrocities committed during the period of armed conflict that accompanied the break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s continue to affect relations among different ethnic groups in the region. The legacy of war crimes and the persistent impunity gap together with some other consequences of the conflict such as unresolved fate of the missing persons, reparations to victims and others still significantly contribute to frustrations, grievances, lack of trust and ethnic polarization. This current situation also creates tensions and undermines reconciliation efforts at local community, national and state levels, and is especially detrimental to the region’s multi-ethnic society.

To address these needs and issues, the UNDP’s RWC project has been focusing, i.e. on strengthening capacity of national judicial institutions to investigate and process war crimes cases and on enhancing their cross-border (regional) co-operation.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will provide substantial support to the RWC project by participating in developing a project proposal for a follow up to the Regional War Crimes project and by collecting, reviewing and analysing judicial reports and statistical data, trial monitoring and other reports on war crimes cases in the Western Balkans and providing substantial inputs for assessing the progress of the project. The consultant will also provide expert advice to UNDP, Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, courts and other Serbian institutions for the implementation of the new Serbian War Crimes Strategy, including identifying and designing necessary capacity building and knowledge transfer activities to improve efficiency of war crimes case processing, regional co-operation, victim support, trial monitoring, enforced disappearance and search for missing persons, and public outreach

Deliverables and Deadlines

The deliverable will be quality reviewed and approved by UNDP Regional War Crimes Project’s Chief Technical Advisor.

Competencies

Technical work

• Strong expertise in criminal justice and war crimes case processing.
• Track record of report writing especially in relation to trial monitoring.
• Knowledge of and experience with protection of human rights, including enforced disappearances (missing persons).

Partnerships

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize relevant collected data and findings for preparation of curricula, educational and other materials, and policy briefs;
• Excellent coordination skills and result-oriented collaboration with colleagues (e.g. Chief Technical Advisor, other staff, external counterparts from CSOs and academia).

Results:

• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Builds strong relationships with beneficiaries and partners, focuses on impact and result and responds positively to feedback;
• Good team player with the ability to maintain good relationships.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in law

Work experience:

• Minimum ten years of experience in the Western Balkans, especially in Serbia, in war crimes trial monitoring and capacity building of judicial institutions in charge of war crimes trials:
• Extensive experience in report writing and in designing and implementing capacity building activities in the area of war crimes case processing:
• Experience with working for international development organisations with mandate in justice, rule of law and peace building:
• Experience in co-operating and working with national judicial institutions in Serbia in charge of war crimes case processing and with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia/Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals.

Language:

• Fluency in Serbian and English.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Application Procedure:

Qualified and interested candidates are asked to submit their applications via UNDP Web site: UNDP in Serbia under section “Jobs” no later than Thursday, 14th October 2021.

Application should include: 

• CV in English language containing date of birth, contact information (home address, phone number, e-mail) and timeline of work experience (including description of duties).  
• Offeror’s Letter (only PDF format will be accepted) confirming Interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) Assignment. Can be downloaded from the following link: https://www.undp.org.rs/download/ic/Confirmation.docx

In order to apply please merge above listed documents into a single PDF file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded.

Any request for clarification must be sent by standard electronic communication to the e-mail vacancy.rs@undp.org. The procuring UNDP entity will respond by standard electronic mail and will send response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants.

The shortlisted candidates may be asked to provide copies of diplomas and any other certificates providing evidence of their education and experience in relevant fields.

Financial Proposal

Lump sum contracts

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in instalments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel

This is home-based engagement therefore no travel envisaged under this Terms of Reference.

Evaluation

 1. Cumulative analysis

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and                                                         

b) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight; 70%

* Financial Criteria weight; 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

Additional Information:

• Individual Contract (IC) will be applicable for individual consultants applying in their own capacity.  If the applicant is employed by any legal entity, IC would be issued upon submission of Consent letter from the employer acknowledging the engagement with UNDP. Template of General Conditions on IC could be found on: Template of General Conditions on IC could be found on: https://rs.undp.org/content/dam/serbia/downloads/General%20Conditions%20for%20Individual%20Contracts.pdf 
• Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) will be applicable for applicants employed by any legal entity. Template of RLA with General Terms and Conditions could be found on: http://www.undp.org.rs/download/RLA%20with%20General%20Terms%20and%20Conditions.doc. In the case of engagement of Civil servants under IC contract modality a no-objection letter should be provided by the Government entity. The ‘no-objection’ letter must also state that the employer formally certifies that their employees are allowed to receive short-term consultancy assignment from another entity without being on “leave-without-pay” status (if applicable), and include any conditions and restrictions on granting such permission, if any. If the previous is not applicable ‘leave-without-pay’ confirmation should be submitted.

Engagement of Government Officials and Employees

• Government Officials or Employees are civil servants of UN Member States.  As such, if they will be engaged by UNDP under an IC which they will be signing in their individual capacity (i.e., engagement is not done through RLA signed by their Government employer), the following conditions must be met prior to the award of contract:

(i)       A “No-objection” letter in respect of the individual is received from the Government employing him/her, and;

(ii)     The individual must provide an official documentation from his/her employer formally certifying his or her status as being on “official leave without pay” for the duration of the IC.

• The above requirements are also applicable to Government-owned and controlled enterprises and well as other semi/partially or fully owned Government entities, whether or not the Government ownership is of majority or minority status.   
• UNDP recognizes the possibility that there are situations when the Government entity employing the individual that UNDP wishes to engage is one that allows its employees to receive external short-term consultancy assignments (including but not limited to research institutions, state-owned colleges/universities, etc.), whereby a status of “on-leave-without-pay” is not required.  Under such circumstance, the individual entering into an IC with UNDP must still provide a “No-objection” letter from the Government employing him/her.  The “no objection” letter required under (i) above must also state that the employer formally certifies that their employees are allowed to receive short-term consultancy assignment from another entity without being on “leave-without-pay” status, and include any conditions and restrictions on granting such permission, if any.  The said document may be obtained by, and put on record of, UNDP, in lieu of the document (ii) listed above.