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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women (UNW) will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Policy Division develops and implements the UNW program of work on analysis, research and knowledge management that provides the evidence base for the advice and guidance UNW provides to the intergovernmental process, the UN system, and to UNW staff working at country and regional level on issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment. It identifies emerging issues and trends, and develops and proposes new strategies for achieving the agreed goals through innovative approaches and lessons learned about what works in practice. It also designs and oversees the training and capacity development programs of UNW, working closely with the UNW training facility in Santo Domingo.

The Policy Division staff is organized in Thematic Clusters, bringing together technical experts who undertake issues-based research; analyze data on country, regional or global trends, build a knowledge base on policy commitments and their implementation, propose evidence-based options for global policy, norms and standards and for UNW global programme strategies, and contribute substantive inputs to policy advocacy and technical cooperation programmes.

UN Women's Peace and Security Section is responsible for providing technical support to UN Women Country Offices in a number of areas, including: conflict prevention and peace building, justice sector and security reform, promoting women's political participation and mainstreaming gender issues into governance reforms. It has global components but is grounded in country-level activities.

Under the supervision of the Policy Adviser, Peace and Security (P5) the Policy Specialist on transitional justice is responsible for coordinating UN Women’s global work on transitional justice, including in particular project managing the EU funded programme on gender and transitional justice; providing technical advice and strategic guidance for UN Women at the global, regional and country levels; making strategic interventions in contemporary transitional justice processes  to support their capacity to address crimes against women, and providing hands-on technical support to UN Women country offices.  The Policy Specialist will also be responsible for UN Women efforts on the deployment of gender expertise to international and national justice mechanisms such as courts, commissions of inquiry and truth seeking bodies.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:

• Coordination and Oversight;
• Policy Development and Programme  Support, and Knowledge-sharing;
• Representation, Partnership Building and Advocacy;
• Learning and Knowledge Management.

Technical assistance and programme support:

• Support UN women’s work on rule of law and access to justice post-conflict, with particular attention to transitional justice;
• Project manage and lead UN Women’s EU programme on gender and transitional justice, including donor reporting, project management and partner relations;
• Provide programmatic and technical support to, and mobilize resources for, UN Women country offices with a particular focus on women’s access to justice in conflict-affected settings, including conducting trainings when requested for country offices and partners on key aspects of gender and transitional justice;
• Support, develop and resource mobilize for UN Women’s current joint programme on ‘Women’s Access to Justice Programme’ in partnership with UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery;
• Support the development, maintenance and deployment from a roster of international criminal justice investigators with a focus on sexual and gender based crimes who can be rapidly deployed to national and international accountability mechanisms;
• Support capacity building within and beyond UN Women to build the body of expertise on investigations and prosecutions of  crimes against women in situations of war or political instability;
• Support national capacity building and implementation of measures to ensure women’s access to transitional justice;
• Review UN Women programming in the area of transitional justice in order to develop guidance for future programming;
• Maintain an on-going watching brief of policy developments in the fields of transitional justice, commissions of inquiry, war crimes tribunals, legal aid, training in sexual violence prosecutions, etc,, including via monitoring of debates in the Security Council, PBC, regional organizations and other relevant forums;
• Organize expert preparatory meetings, panels and other interactive events on gender justice in relation to transitions, post-conflict situations, and political instability;
• Any other functions as requested by the Policy Adviser (P5) or Chief Adviser, Peace and Security (D1).

Coordination and Policy Development:

• Review the UN’s approaches to transitional justice and ensure incorporation of gender perspectives, including in any programming/advocacy on reparations;
• Represent UN Women in the UN’s Rule of Law Coordination and Resource Group (RoLCRG) and other relevant interagency forums, including working closely with and liaising with UN Women’s expert on the Global Focal Point arrangement on Justice, Police and Corrections in Fragile and Conflict-affected settings;
• Support initiatives to reform or improve the UN’s institutional capacities in advancing women’s rights and building their protection via rule of law and transitional justice measures in post conflict situations;
• Engage as appropriate other UN, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental institutions in the effort to advance gender justice in transitional, fragile state, and post-conflict settings;
• Develop strategy on engaging regional organizations in this work and technically supporting the development of regional transitional justice policies and programming;
• With UN partners,  identify cross-regional needs and provide (where available) capacity building support for gender justice interventions, training or programming that supports agreed priorities under the UN’s Strategic results framework on women peace and security;
• Integrate gender-responsive rule of law and transitional justice concerns to a range of other intergovernmental forums such as OECD – DAC, regional organizations, as well as the on-going work of international criminal tribunals and their legacy efforts.

Representation, Partnerships  and Advocacy:

• Develop partnerships with appropriate international civil society,governmental and intergovernmental institutions to advance common goals in this area;
• Establish and nurture relationship with academia, research institutes, civil society and experts in women and recovery and peacebuilding to expand and share knowledge, exchange views on latest findings, incorporate cutting-edge thinking in UN work on gender-responsive peacebuilding;
• Initiate and support cutting edge research and studies to further gender-responsive transitional justice measures;
• With strategic partners, identify areas of on-going gaps and obstacles to effective prosecution or truth-telling regarding war crimes against women and design appropriate advocacy responses.

Learning and Knowledge management:

• Create and disseminate knowledge products to support gender-sensitive transitional justice programming.  This includes support to collating, analyzing and consolidating lessons learnt/best practice linked to in-country programming and contributing to the development of new UN Women knowledge products, research and policy;
• Identify and develop UN Women’s research agenda on rule of law and transitional justice, including through innovative approaches
• Support the development of policy and knowledge, as appropriate and under the guidance of the Peace and Security Chief Advisor;
• Monitor and provide substantive guidance and technical inputs to ensure the quality of knowledge products and capacity development tools;
• Provide feedback to UN Women offices on case studies and other related knowledge products and publications as requested and needed;
• Identify knowledge gaps and recruit, monitor and assess performance of consultants and other service providers as needed.

Impact of Results:

UN Women demonstrates global leadership in ensuring that human rights against women during conflicts and periods of instability are documented and where possible prosecuted in order to build a safer world for women.  Leadership is further provided in designing and informing the nature of gender-responsive transitional justice measures, for example mobilizing increased attention to the delivery of reparations as a critical measure of justice. Related aspects of rule of law such as security sector reform and protection systems are effectively addressed as well.  The Policy Specialist on Rule of Law and Justice also supports capacity-building of specialized expertise in this area to support national and regional efforts to build gender justice. This improves the responsiveness of the UN’s recovery and peacebuilding efforts.

Competencies

Core values and Guding principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity:

• Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents.

Organizational Awareness:

• Building support and political acumen.

Developing and Empowering People / coaching and mentoring:

• Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation.

Working in Teams:

• Building and promoting effective teams.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication.

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization.

Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements:

• Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.

Functional Competencies:

• Good knowledge of gender related issues including in recovery, public safety, peacebuilding, statebuilding and transitions;
• Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities;
• Ability to handle a large volume of work under time constraints;
• Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective;
• Strong communications skills, with proven expertise in writing cogent and convincing policy and programme documents for development practitioners;
• Proven analytical and problem-solving skills, including skills in marshaling evidence, including quantitative data, to support programming and policy;
• Ability to use information technology, executive information systems, statistical data, management techniques and tools for optimal office performance;
• Ability to work in a team and manage subordinates to deliver timely and high quality work;
• Ability to develop and maintain roster of experts, and a databank of research institutes, academics, civil society experts, etc. of direct relevance to gender issues in transitional justice and protection systems;
• Maturity, ability to take decisions under pressure and ability to deal with matters that are politically or culturally sensitive;
• Ability to work as a member of a team;
• Managerial, organizational, budgeting, results-based management, and negotiating and communication skills;
• Excellent writing and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced University degree (Masters Level) in law, social   sciences, political science/ international affairs (i.e. international development studies, gender/women’s studies) or a related technical field.

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years experience in the one of these fields: Rule of Law/human rights, peacebuilding, transitional justice, gender and development.  Programme and policy analysis, strategic planning and field experience in peacebuilding settings;
• Experience working with women’s organizations and governments and in the field desirable;
• Three years of progressively responsible professional project management, coordination, monitoring and evaluation;
• Knowledge of rule of law programming, including transitional justice notably in post-conflict contexts;
• Knowledge of mechanisms for preventing SGBV through rule of law responses;
• Experience in knowledge management and generation including via communities of practice and publication track record. Familiarity with the UN system’s rules and procedures;
• Experience and knowledge of UN Women desirable;
• Familiarity with UNDP Atlas system and Prince 2 is an asset;

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.

Application:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment 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.
• Previous applicants will be reconsidered and do not have to resubmit new application.

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.