NOTE: Signed Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability - http://www.ba.undp.org/content/dam/bosnia_and_herzegovina/docs/Operations/Jobs/Offerors%20Letter%20to%20UNDP%20Confirming%20Interest%20and%20Availability.docx Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability.docx - to be sent to e-mail ba.shared.hr@undp.org  with Subject: Job ID 87499.

Purpose

The purpose of the consultancy is to assess relevant legal and regulatory frameworks as well as established practices, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia which are pertinent to personal data protection with a view to supporting and enhancing public awareness of war crimes trials by making war crimes judgements and indictments more available to the public and judicial professionals. This will be achieved through extensive analysis of the respective legal frameworks and practices in the four countries, and their comparison to the relevant Council of Europe’s and European Union’s legal regulation as well as other international and comparative regulations and practices. Full consideration must be paid to both the personal data protection perspective and the right of the public to know, given the importance of war crimes trials for individuals and the societies in the region. 

Objective

The main objective of the consultancy is to conduct a comparative analyses and produce a report  of the four countries on how much their respective personal data protection and other related legal frameworks, as well as the legal regulation of Council of Europe, European Union (especially the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation - GDPR) and other relevant international bodies and institutions allow for making judgments and indictments in war crimes cases available to the general public, without anonymization or redactions of the names of the accused, crime sites, victims and witnesses.  The study shall further explore and assess if there would be personal data protection limitations to making national war crimes jurisprudence accessible to the professional community through the creation of a regional database of jurisprudence.  The study shall assess the current situation and capacities in the four countries in relation to the aforementioned areas and issues, and identify gaps, problems, and areas for improvement of the existing or introduction of the new legal regulations and practices to reconcile different rights and interests especially personal data protection and privacy with the right to know the matters of high importance for the public.

Background Information

The consultancy is planned within the Regional War Crimes (RWC) Project– Western Balkans. The RWC Project aims to strengthen the rule of law in the Western Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia) by contributing to the effective fight against impunity for war crimes through support to regional cooperation in war crimes processing and other efforts to address the legacy of the conflict from the nineties in region. The project builds on the platform for regional cooperation on processing war crimes and the search for missing persons, established among institutions of BiH, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, which has been facilitated by UNDP since 2015, under the initiation phase of the project. The platform has supported trust-building among the key actors, re-activation of cross-border communication, exchange of information and evidence, as well as commitment to joint investigations.

The overall aim of the RWC Project will be realized through the achievement of the following project outputs:

1. Strengthened regional cooperation among prosecution services through improvement of the legal framework for cross-border cooperation aimed at increased efficiency of the war crimes processing in BiH, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia
2. Establishment of cross-border victim and witness support system and framework of regional consultations between the victims’ associations and Prosecutors Offices, including enhanced communication with victims and the public.

Overall, the project aims to contribute to maximizing societal impact of criminal proceedings and other transitional justice processes supporting a conducive environment for reconciliation and sustaining peace in the region. It will do so through expediting the prosecution of war crimes, enhancing support, especially cross-border, to victims and witnesses, facilitating regional dialogue among POs and other relevant institutions and victims’ associations, while also promoting transparent and data-based communication and public outreach on processing of war crimes cases, search for missing persons and other transitional justice processes.

One of the issues that the project seeks to address is the need for the general public to be duly and promptly informed on war crimes trials and their outcomes.  Additionally, the project seeks to develop and establish a regional war crimes jurisprudence database.  This database will need to follow appropriate standardization and methodology from the personal data protection perspective and this should be addressed through this consultancy. Finally, the consultancy should address the issues pertinent to the content of the official websites of the relevant national institutions of the four countries in order to ensure that the public and professional community is promptly informed on war crimes trials. 

The Consultant will be tasked to first propose a plan and an approach (methodology), and then to gather necessary information from available sources and all the relevant institutions, stakeholders and individuals, following the purpose and objective of the consultancy. The Consultant will prepare a report analyzing and summarizing findings, assessing and proposing solutions, and issuing specific recommendations to UNDP for possible interventions and support to judicial and other state authorities.  Particular attention will be paid to the right of the public to know in relation to war crimes trials, as well as the value of publicizing such information for the professional and academic community. The Consultant will prepare the study, in English, in the form of a report.

While the consultancy will focus specifically on the possibility to make public as much information on war crimes trials as possible, the consultant will also consider legal requirements pertinent to personal data protection. The consultant should also identify and map any previous, current or planned activities or projects on the topic of data protection and access to information for the public, especially in relation to war crimes trials.

The study will be conducted through desk research and where needed direct communication with the representatives of the relevant national institutions in BiH, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, as well as international organizations or stakeholders that implement similar projects or activities. Such communication should be carried out through remote communication (skype, e-mail, phone). In addition, the consultant will review relevant and available reports, documents and literature on the matter.

More specifically, the Consultant will undertake the following main tasks:

Task 1: Design and planning of a study

Under this task the Consultant will:

• Familiarization with key requirements, stakeholders, and challenges, including through a meeting with the RWC Project team (possibly by Skype);
• Provide a methodology for conducting a study, given the Scope of Work, and the purpose and objective of the consultancy in co-operation with the RWC Project team. Outline a plan of work including communication for the purpose of the study; submit the methodology and plan to the RWC Chief Technical Advisor and IRH Rule of Law, Justice, Security and Human Rights Specialist for approval. 

The level of effort for this task will not exceed 2 expert days.

Task 2:  Collecting information for the study

Under this task the Consultant will:

• Based on the approved methodology and plan, collect information for the study, in particular through:
  • conducting a research and analyzing legislation and by-laws of the four countries in the region, Council of Europe (CoE) standards (conventions, ECtHR jurisprudence) and recommendations, GDPR and other EU law in reference to making war crimes judgments available to the public and other countries’ judicial professionals; what are comparative state practices and legislations in that regard in criminal trials (from a certain number of countries).
  • liaising with representatives of the national institutions in the four countries (personal data protection/free access to information institutions and other competent national institutions), and other relevant national and international stakeholders to identify to what extent the national legal frameworks and institutional practices in the region allow for making judgments and indictments in war crimes cases available to the general public (usually through websites of the judicial institutions) with or without anonymization or redactions of the names of the accused, crime sites, victims and witnesses. and for exchange of the national jurisprudence between the four countries’ judicial officials through a regional data base of war crimes jurisprudence.
  • reviewing reports, official documents and other available sources and literature on the matter;
  • collecting relevant information through other sources as appropriate.

The level of effort for this task will not exceed 7 expert days.

Task 3: Producing the report

Under this task the Consultant will:

• Analyze the collected information and prepare a report containing the detailed assessment of identified problems and needs and tailor-made recommendations for national institutions, UNDP and other stakeholders, as explained above under purpose and objective;
• Propose options and issue specific recommendations to UNDP for possible interventions and support to judicial and other state authorities, including proposals of model legal provisions for striking a balance between data protection and right to know that could be included, where needed, in the national legislations, by-laws, rulebooks.

The level of effort for this task will not exceed 6 expert days.

Deliverables and Timeline

Consultant is responsible for the following deliverables:
 

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional competencies:

• Strong interpersonal skills, communication and diplomatic skills, ability to work individually and in a team;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations;
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities;
• Excellent public speaking and presentation skills.

Academic Qualifications/Education:

• Advanced university degree in law, humanities, development or other relevant field.
• Bachelor’s degree with additional two years of working experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.

Experience:

• At least 8 years of professional experience in practicing law, public administration, academy, or consulting dealing with issues of data protection, free access to information, human rights or transitional justice.
• Extensive professional experience dealing with regulation or legislation on personal data protection and free access to information.
• Excellent knowledge of the Council of Europe standards (conventions, ECtHR jurisprudence) and recommendations, European Union regulatory framework, and comparative European national legislation and practices in the areas of personal data protection and human rights.
• Very good understanding of and familiarity with personal data protection regulations, criminal justice institutions and criminal procedures in the Western Balkans will be considered a strong asset.

Languages Requirements:

• Fluency in English;
• Knowledge of Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) will be considered a strong asset.

Other:

• Excellent and advanced computer skills (MS Office applications) and ability to use information technologies as a tool and resource.

Qualification Criteria

Technical evaluation:

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 60% of the technical evaluation score would be considered for the financial evaluation

EVALUATION

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

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%

Applicants are required to submit an application including:

• Proposal:

  • Cover/motivation letter in English language;

  • Examples of similar work – reports previously completed by a candidate in a similar (consultancy) capacity.

• Personal CV including relevant experience and contact details of at least 3 references;

Please scan all above mentioned documents and upload as one attachment only online through this website.

Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.