Associate Protection Officer

Contract

This is a UNV International Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as International UN Volunteer. It is normally internationally recruited only. More about UNV International Specialist contracts.

The Office of the UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 by the UN General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safe-guard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country (www.unhcr.org).

Under the direct supervision of the Senior Protection Officer Goma, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: •Through relationships with persons of concern, authorities and network of partners stay abreast of political, social, economic and cultural developments that have an impact on the protection environment and provide advice to senior management. •Ensure that the perspectives, capacities, needs and resources of the persons of concerns are reflected in the protection strategy, planning processes and operations plan addressing the specific protection needs of women and men, children, youth and older persons, persons with disabilities, minority groups such as sexual minorities and persons living with HIV/AIDS. •Utilize the IDPs footprint during the planning process. •Coordinate the promotion of international refugee law principles and standards and also IDP legislation or policies ensuring that all sectors and clusters fulfill their responsibilities mainstreaming protection. •Coordinate the implementation and monitoring of programmes ensuring that identified protection needs, including an Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) approach, are adequately addressed. •Provide policy guidance and operational support to UNHCR and partners on all protection related issues; •Provide legal advice and guidance on protection issues to internal and external interlocutors; ensure legal assistance is accessible to persons of concern; liaise with competent authorities to ensure the issuance of personal and other relevant documents to persons of concern (civil documentation, in particular birth certificates); •Monitor, and assist with the intervention in cases of refoulement, expulsion and other protection incidents through working relations with governments and other partners; •Assist in the coordinated implementation and oversight of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all protection/solutions activities; •Ensure that durable solutions through voluntary repatriation, local integration and where appropriate, resettlement are sought and provided to the largest possible number of persons of concern; •Ensure through direct action and advocacy with more senior protection staff that the necessary resources are allocated to enable protection activities to identify and address protection and assistance gaps; •Support a consultative process with government counterparts at local levels, partners and persons of concern to develop and implement integrated strategies that address the key protection priorities, including, for example, child protection, education and SGBV, and solutions approaches; •Promote confidence building and conflict resolution among populations of concern, authorities and host communities; •Maintain protection presence through regular field missions and reports, making direct contact with persons of concern, host communities, local authorities and partners. In operations applying the humanitarian cluster system, contribute to ensuring that the response of the Protection Cluster is grounded in an AGD-compliant strategy which covers all assessed and prioritized protection needs of the affected populations;
•Contribute to the Protection team's information management component which: provide disaggregated data on populations of concern and their problems; researches, collects and disseminates relevant protection information and good practices to enhance protection delivery and provide technical advice if necessary; •Ensure participatory, community-based protection and AGD approaches are included in, strategies and plans in the country operation; •Support persons of concern to develop structures that enhance their participation and protection.

Integrity and professionalism; Accountability ; Commitment to continuous learning ; Planning and organizing ; Teamwork and respect for diversity; Communication; Flexibility, adaptability, and ability; Genuine commitment.

Law, International Law, International Relations, Social Sciences, Political Sciences or related field.

Goma is a non-family duty station. The security situation in Goma is calmer than in the rest of the province and generally stable. Goma is a provincial capital of close to 1,000,000 inhabitants, with access to goods in the shops and markets, some restaurants and limited general health facilities. Goma is on the shores of Lake Kivu and share a border with Rwanda. International staff live in rented houses Goma town; choices of accommodation is limited due to large number of humanitarian workers in the area. Most houses have basic furniture, bathroom, and kitchen and living room facilities. There are limited sports and recreational activities in town. Some selection of fresh vegetables and fruit is usually available in the local market. There are virtually no telephone land lines in the DRC, though mobile phones and cellular service are widely available. IUNVs are not allowed to drive UNHCR vehicles in DRC. Purchase and use of local vehicles is possible. Air travel is necessary to get from one end of the country to the other. There are many humanitarian flights for in country travel. For out of the country travel, flights are taken from Goma and Kigali in Rwanda. Kigali is reachable by road, three hours trip on a tar-mac road. The current R&R cycle is every 8 weeks.