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. Guided by its new Strategic Plan 2022-2025, UN-Women leverages its unique triple mandate, encompassing normative support, UN system coordination and operational activities to reach these goals. At a time when COVID-19 has compounded all aspects of gender inequality, UN Women is taking bold action at headquarters and across the globe to rebuild better and equal, to address the needs of all women and girls and leave no one behind.

The Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division develops and implements UN Women’s work on programming, analysis, research and knowledge management to provide an evidence base for advice and guidance to intergovernmental processes, the UN system, member states and to UN Women staff working at country and regional levels on issues of gender equality and women's empowerment. It delivers results in support of UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 and internationally agreed goals on gender equality and women’s empowerment, including the Beijing Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Division identifies emerging issues and trends and develops and proposes new strategies for achieving the agreed goals through innovative approaches and lessons learned on what works in practice.

The Governance and Participation Section is one of four thematic sections within the Division. UN Women strives to drive impact in this area by ensuring that all women and girls can fully and equally participate in decision-making and can benefit from gender responsive laws, policies, budgets, services and accountable institutions. 

Judicial and legal reforms more broadly, and the repeal or revision of discriminatory laws specifically, are inherent to the achievement of gender equality—a requirement for realizing the transformative ambitions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and critical to the implementation of specific commitments of States enshrined in relevant international conventions, United Nations standards and norms. Ending gender discriminatory laws was defined in 2021 as a priority by the UN Secretary General for the UN system in his Call to Action for Human Rights and Our Common Agenda key proposals to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) achievement. 

Under Outcome 1 of Strategic Plan 2022–2025, UN Women strives to strengthen global normative frameworks and gender-responsive laws, policies and institutions, including by supporting the adoption, revision and repeal of laws to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment and meeting the targets of SDG 5.1. Furthermore, under Outcome 4 UN Women will support women’s equitable access to services, goods and resources, including access to justice. In line with the new Plan, UN Women will also continue implementing the multi-stakeholder “Strategy on Equality in Law for Women and Girls by 2030” (Strategy on Equality in Law), with a focus on the repeal or revision of discriminatory laws as an important part of a broader legal reform agenda that supports the achievement of gender equality. UN Women will also continue to support the Generation Equality Forum Action Coalitions in their efforts to advance legal change to meet the goals of the Acceleration Plan for Gender Equality.

Working under the supervision of the Global Policy Advisor on Rule of Law, the Policy Specialist, Legal Reform will support levelling the law and access to justice for women and girls at the national, regional and global levels. He/she will provide policy guidance and technical support to UN Women Regional and Country Offices and national partners (such as parliaments, judiciaries, law reform commissions, ministries of justice, national women’s machineries) to undertake and implement gender responsive judicial and legal reforms, and to access justice. The Specialist will contribute to the implementation of outcome 1 and 4 of the Strategic Plan, support development and implementation of signature interventions, and the implementation of the UN Women-Sida Strategic Partnership Framework (SPF3) component on gender responsive laws and policies. The Specialist will liaise closely with partners, including those implementing the Strategy on Equality in Law and UN agencies. 

Duties and Responsibilities

1.  Provide corporate planning, monitoring and reporting support on law reform/access to justice development results

• Provide  technical and substantive guidance and assistance to regional and thematic programmes, country strategies and knowledge management related to the thematic area;
• Provide technical input to annual reporting review process of Strategic Plan outcomes and outputs related to legal reform/access to justice, including the development of baselines, milestones and targets; desk review of country offices’ results reporting; and drafting inputs for the corporate annual report.
• Provide technical inputs for the  development of and reporting on the Section’s biennial workplan;
• Review of regional/country office strategic documents, including Strategic Notes, gender profiles and contributions to Common Assessments/Cooperation Frameworks.
• Provide programmatic and operational support for the development and implementation of signature interventions in line with the section’s theory of change/theory of action and related thematic initiatives on women’s access to justice and law reform;
• Provide inputs to, monitor and report on programme workplans and budgets; including the allocation of seed funding to UN Women offices for direct support to advance law reform and/or access to justice
• Contribute to the drafting of funding proposal and resource mobilization

2.  Provide direct technical assistance and capacity development to country offices and national partners on law reform/ access to justice

• Provide technical assistance and advisory services to UN Women regional and country offices  to develop strategy, policy and project documents on access to justice/law reform, promoting coordinated programming and linking normative and technical work at global, regional and country levels.
• Provide technical  inputs and advice on law reform and access to justice based on best practice
• Review funding proposals and provide substantive advice and ensure compliance with UNW corporate strategiesand UN System wide policies on access to justice/rule of law;
• Liaise with relevant thematic advisors and field offices to support programme development and implementation;
• Convene and/or support trainings and thematic webinars, facilitate peer-to-peer learning and promote a coordinated approach on access to justice/rule of law and implementation as needed;

3.  Provide technical support to knowledge management and exchange on law reform/access to justice

• Provide technical inputs to the development of the section's knowledge management plan and its implementation for all products related to legal reform/access to justice
• Provide technical contributions to corporate/section policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers/ materials on legal reform/access to justice ;
• Provide technical support to regional and country offices to identify and disseminate lessons learned and good practices on rule of law/access to justice; provide feedback/substantive knowledge to UN Women offices on studies and other related knowledge products as requested;
• Participate in and share information on Communities of Practice and web platforms showcasing results and knowledge generated by UN Women regional and country offices;
• Share lessons learned and results with partners in the UN system, civil society, member states and other stakeholders.

4.  Provide technical support to inter agency processes and coordination

• Provide technical inputs to policy documents, briefings, talking points, and knowledge products
• Represent UN Women in UN coordination meetings on indigenous peoples, minority issues, and access to justice (as requested)  

5.  Provide any other support as requested by the supervisor.

Key Performance Indicatos:

• Timely provision of research and advisory support on the thematic area;
• Quality technical assistance to UN Women country offices provided on the thematic area;
• Quality and timely inputs to briefings, knowledge products, publications and other documents;
• Timely coordination of meetings and events.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies

• Strong knowledge of gender related issues and human rights, including laws that promote gender equality; judicial, legislative and constitutional reforms and/or policies;
• Strong qualitative and quantitative research skills to carry out policy research and prepare studies, policy papers, speeches, briefings;
• Strong knowledge of programme development, implementation, results-based management and reporting;
• Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities;
• Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints;
• Ability to establish, build and sustain effective relationships with partners, including representatives of member states, UN agencies and UN Women field offices.
• Team player.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in law, human rights, political science and/or international development;
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of experience in designing and/or implementing legal reform/access to justice programmes in national and/or international settings;
• At least 3 years of experience working on gender equality and women’s empowerment, especially on access to justice for women and gender responsive legal reforms;
• Experience carrying out policy analysis and developing policy documents for public audiences;
• Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field;
• Experience working with the UN will be an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc. 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.

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.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)