Background
Over 2.5 billion women and girls around the world are affected by discriminatory laws and the lack of legal protections, often in multiple ways. The spaces in which laws have been designed, implemented or even studied as a profession have historically excluded women and girls. As a result, their voices and perspectives continue to be largely absent from laws and legal practices. Discrimination in law is commonplace, including different standards for women and men in applying for a passport, choosing employment, transferring nationality to a child or foreign spouse, participating in court proceedings, receiving inheritance and deciding when and whom to marry. Laws that promote gender equality can yield multiple dividends: among other potential benefits, a law that enables women to inherit on an equal basis with men could empower mothers to invest in the education of their daughters. This increases women’s average age of marriage, because girls who stay in school are less likely to be married off. On the other hand, lower levels of gender equality in national laws are associated with fewer girls enrolled in primary and secondary education, fewer women in skilled work, fewer women owning land, fewer women accessing financial and health services and more women facing domestic, family and sexual violence.
Law reform 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. They are also among the specific commitments of States enshrined in relevant international conventions and United Nations standards and norms. Yet progress in eliminating discriminatory laws has been uneven. In many cases, global, regional and national sources of support have not been fully harnessed to accelerate reforms. Key propellers have included the monitoring role of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Committee),country visits of the United Nations Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, the policies of regional and interregional bodies, statements of political will from national governments, ongoing investments in analysis of laws from a gender perspective, continued education of the judiciary on domestic application of international law, judicial activism in striking down unconstitutional or discriminatory laws, the active engagement of civil society organizations (CSOs), campaigns to galvanize awareness and the collection of data to track specific aspects of discriminatory laws.
Against this background, UN Women, the African Union, the Commonwealth, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and Secretaría General Ibero-Americana have issued Equality in Law for Women and Girls by 2030: A Multistakeholder Strategy for Accelerated Action as a roadmap for the elimination of laws that discriminate against women and girls. The strategy presented in Equality in Law for Women and Girls focuses 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. In this broader context, it seeks to ensure the elimination of all discriminatory legislation by 2030.
Initiative Background:
Legal Analysis from a Gender Perspective
In line with the above, UN Women Bangladesh intends to embark on a comprehensive legislative analysis from a gender perspective to provide an in-depth understanding of the current legal framework and the existence of gaps and discriminatory provisions, with the long-term vision of advocating for law reform to enact new laws or repeal, or revise discriminatory legislation as the case may be.
The gender analysis will explore the vast spectrum of laws to assess their gender responsiveness and will highlight discriminatory provisions and gaps that would require to be repeal, amended or enactment trough a law reform process.
Gender-sensitive legislation assumes “the integration of a gender perspective into all components of the legislative process—design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation—in order to achieve the ultimate objective of equality between women and men.
The legal analysis should look at discrimination in a broad sense; both on direct discrimination, namely, how the law explicitly treats women and men or girls and boys; and indirect discrimination that occurs when a law appears to be neutral on its face but has a discriminatory effect in practice on women because pre-existing inequalities are not addressed by the apparently neutral measure.
The legal analysis should consists of a selective mapping of the national context for purposes of capturing all forms of legal frameworks (the constitution, statutes, legislative instruments, executive orders, administrative regulations, case law and other relevant and related government texts) and not only those which reference gender, women or girls. The legal frameworks in question must cover all fields and sectors of law and must not be limited to legislation that is specifically related to women, girls or children. Each legal text is to be pre- assessed and a determination made as to how the provisions impact upon the achievement of gender equality. The legal analysis will draw from international standards, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the CEDAW Committee’s General Recommendation No. 28 on the Core Obligations of States Parties under Article 2 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Concluding observations from the CEDAW Committee, Committee on the Rights of the Child and Universal Periodic Review will also be taken in consideration.
Furthermore, the analysis will identify and highlight good practice legislation and processes from other countries, including those of similar legal systems to Bangladesh.
Given the large amount of list of laws in place, the mapping will be preceded by a consensus-building exercise among national stakeholders as to which sectoral laws will be reviewed.
As a result, the mapping exercise will also include consultation with critical stakeholders to ensure their by-in from the beginning of the process, as well as gain their expertise and recommendations for the identification of sectoral laws.
The gender analysis will be presented at a validation workshop which will serve as a platform consensus on the outcome of the assessment as well as for charting a path forward for a law reform process in the long term.
Advocacy for a strengthened legal framework related to violence against women:
While the comprehensive analysis is intended to serve a long-term vision of stock-taking on the state of Bangladesh’s laws from a gender perspective, it would be important for the analysis to be complemented by a deep dive into one or two thematic areas of reform, achievable in the short to medium term. UN Women is implementing the Combating Gender-based Violence (CGBV) in Bangladesh Project. The project recognizes that prevention of violence requires sustained and comprehensive action at individual, family, organizational and societal levels. The project focuses on primary prevention, stopping violence before it occurs, as it is a strategic approach to ending violence against women and girls. It furthermore aims to generate knowledge and evidence to create evidence-based prevention interventions. Finally, one of the intervention strategies of the CGVB project is the strengthening of policies and laws related to violence against women. As part of this outcome, UN Women intends to strengthen advocacy around the enactment of sexual harassment legislation and enhance knowledge management and capacity building of the current legal framework.
Duties and Responsibilities
Objective:
UN Women is thus looking to engage a legal consultant to under the following tasks under two interrelated areas of work:
Area 1: Comprehensive gender analysis of laws and identification of area/s of repeal:
- Undertake a comprehensive analysis of the laws of Bangladesh from a gender perspective, beginning from the social, cultural, economic and political context, underpinning the current state of affairs;
- Through a process of national consultation and consensus, prepare a roadmap to guide stakeholders in repealing discriminatory laws and agree on a plan for law reform.
Area 2: Support advocacy for a strengthened legal framework addressing violence against women:
- Support UN Women to ensure a participatory approach to advocate for a strengthened legal framework addressing violence against women;
- Develop position papers on violence against women and interlinkages with access to justice to enhance knowledge management and information sharing among key partners;
- Provide UN Women with technical inputs for legislative and policy reform and advocacy interventions to end violence against women.
Methodology and Scope of Work:
Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Programme Specialist -EVAW, the service provider will undertake the assignment through a desk review and other qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews. He/she will support UN Women in ensuring a participatory approach to advocate for a strengthened legal framework, by undertaking the following tasks:
- Conduct a legal analysis from a gender perspective of agreed sectors of national legislation;
- Conduct consultation with key stakeholders to identify the sectoral laws for revision;
- Facilitate a validation workshop to present and synthetize findings and agree on a road map for law reform;
- Ensure that relevant feedback emanating from the consultation process is incorporated into a plan for UN Women and its partners to advocate for strengthening the normative framework;
- Draft 5 position/ advocacy papers on violence against women, child marriage, access to justice and gender related legislation;
- Organize and facilitate at least 3 round table discussions with key experts and stakeholders on the strategies to strengthen the policy and legal framework and enact the sexual harassment legislation,
- Provide UN Women with technical inputs and strategic advice on legislative and policy reform and advocacy interventions to end violence against women.
Duration of Work:
The assignment will commence upon signing the contract and accomplished by 30th June 2020.
Supervision and performance evaluation:
The consultant will be directly supervised by the UN Women Programme Specialist, Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW).
Deliverables and deadline:
Legal analysis from a gender perspective:
- Methodology developed and shared by June 2019;
- Draft an inception report for the analysis of legislation from a gender perspective by July 2019;
- Conduct consultations to identify sectoral laws by July 2019;
- Develop draft report on the legislation analysis from a gender perspective by October 2019;
- Facilitate a validation workshop to present legislation analysis findings by November 2019;
- Provide a final report and brief on the legislation analysis from a gender perspective by November 2019.
Strengthening legal framework related to violence against women:
- Coordinate and facilitate 2 roundtable discussions on sexual harassment with key experts to agree on advocacy strategies by July-September 2019;
- Draft 2 position papers on the SH law and/or discriminatory laws by July-October 2019;
- Coordinate and facilitate one follow up roundtable discussion by February 2020;
- Draft 3 advocacy papers on violence and/or access to justice by October 2019-April 2020;
- Provide advisory services for legislative and policy reform, including explicit provisions on the high court directive on SH; GBV/VAW related laws; and CGBV’s advocacy plan by July 2019-June 2020.
Competencies
Technical Competencies:
- Experience in issues related to gender equality, legal reforms and ending violence against women.
Functional Competencies:
- Ability to pragmatically apply in-depth knowledge and experience of issues and practices in the fields of judiciary systems; legal reform; gender equality and ending violence against women in Bangladesh;
- Strong skills and experience in presenting evidence and ideas for policy and programme;
- Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
- Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.
Core Competencies:
- Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
- Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women;
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
- Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
- Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Master’s degree in law. A PhD will be an added value.
Experiences:
- At least 10 years’ experience on gender and violence against women, with a specific focus on sexual harassment, and gender analysis of national legislation and policy documents;
- Proven knowledge of international practices, legislations and policies; and instruments on violence against women; and/or the protection of human rights;
- Experience in managing and facilitating high-level dialogues, round table discussions, consultations, with stakeholders at both grassroots and national levels;
- Experience working with CSOs initiatives and government;
- Proven experience to collect, analyze and interpret complex qualitative and quantitative data;
- Previous professional experience with development agencies and the United Nations would be considered an asset.
Language and other skills:
Excellent command of English and Bangla (written and oral) is required.
Travel cost:
UN Women will provide National Consultants’ travel and accommodation costs undertaking this assignment as per UNW travel Policy. All travels shall be coordinated with UN Women Project Manager.
Submission of application:
Interested Individual Consultants will submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.
To be included as part of the proposal:
- A brief expression of interest: a brief narrative presenting your suitability for this assignment;
- UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
- Sample work;
- Personal CV (of no more than 4 pages);
- Financial proposal for the full assignment, including daily rates
NOTE: Documents required before contract signing:
- UN Personal History Form;
- Full medical examination and Statement of Fitness to work and travel for consultants with travel involved. (This is not a requirement for RLA contracts);
- Security Certificate BSAFE: EN: https://agora.unicef.org/course/info.php?id=17891;
- Individual subscribers over 65 years of age are required to undergo a full medical examination including x-rays at their own cost and obtaining medical clearance from the UN Medical Director prior to taking up their assignment;
- Release letter in case the selected consultant is government official.
Only applications will all items mentioned above will be considered
Payments
Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of deliverables and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed, at the end of the assignment
Please use "Legal Consultant" as the subject heading of your application.
All applications must include (as an attachment) the CV and the financial proposal. Applications without financial proposal will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. “Personal History Form - P 11” can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employme