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.

Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region

The Safe and Fair Programme delivers technical assistance and support with the overall objective of making labour migration safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region. Safe and Fair engages with ASEAN Member States’ government authorities; ASEAN institutions; workers’ organizations; employers and recruitment agencies; civil society organizations; community-based organizations; families and communities; research institutions and academia, media networks, youth, and the general public and supports comprehensive country programme active in eight countries (Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam).

Safe and Fair works in close cooperation with governments and social partners to achieve three inter-linking specific objectives: (1) Women migrant workers are better protected by gender-sensitive labour migration governance frameworks; (2) Women migrant workers are less vulnerable to violence and trafficking and benefit from coordinated responsive quality services; and (3) Data, knowledge and attitudes on the rights and contributions of women migrant workers are improved. The programme strategy mainstreams three cross-cutting topics: women’s voice and agency; rights-based approach; and broad engagement of stakeholders.

In 2019, the Safe and Fair Programme identified where in the ASEAN laws and policies on prevention and response to violence against women are in place through a scoping study. In some countries, legislation and policies are being reviewed or drafted which related to violence against women, and violence against women migrant workers. This consultancy is designed to provide legal analysis and contributions to legislation and policies when requested. Contributions to draft legislation and policy would align with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) General Recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women and General Recommendation No 26 on women migrant workers, and its language, where possible, but not limited to.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. The Convention defines discrimination against women as "...any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field."[1]

[1] https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/

Duties and Responsibilities

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide legal advice on draft legal and/or policy documents related to violence against women, violence against women migrant workers and/or labour migration in ASEAN. The consultant will support the Ending Violence against Women unit in the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

Scope of Work: Provide legal inputs to strengthen legislation and policies to prevent and respond to violence against women migrant workers, in line with international standards, such as CEDAW, for three (3) countries of the Safe and Fair Programme (countries to be identified).

• Situation analysis
• Identify gaps between the existing laws and/or policies (or draft laws and/or policies) and international standards, especially in the context of migration.
• Identify areas where the existing laws and/or policies (or draft laws and/or polices) can be improved to better protect the rights of women migrant workers, especially in a perspective of violence against women migrant workers

• Technical inputs

• Based on the situation analysis, provide inputs to the draft laws and/or policies that are in line with international standards
• Based on the situation analysis, provide inputs to the legal documents informed by rights-based and gender-sensitive approaches, and survivor-centred language, especially in the context of migration.

• Guidance note

• Based on the situation analysis and technical inputs, draft a guidance note for UN Women on how to best utilize the inputs to advocate for legislation and policies amendment/adaptation.

Deliverables:

Competencies

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

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

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in the field of law, gender studies, social science, public policy, or other related areas;
• A minimum of seven (7) years of professional experience in law, including legal analysis, research and writing at national and international levels, is required.
• Demonstrated experience and knowledge of ending violence against women is required. Experience and knowledge in the ASEAN region are desired;
• Demonstrated experience and knowledge of labour migration is desired;
• Experience in working with UN agencies is an asset;
• Fluency in English is required.

Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated. Technical qualification evaluation criteria: The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100.

Submission of application

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org with -cc to Younghwa.choi@unwomen.org by 25 March 2020 COB (Bangkok time), with an email subject including “Legal consultant – EVAW”.

Submission package includes:

• Curriculum vitae
• Personal History Form (P11 which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs)
• Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify deliverable fees breaking down into the professional fee per day.

Please be noted that the system only allows 1 attachment per application so please combined all files into one file.  In case that is not possible, you can submit the application again with different attachments.

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.