Individual consultant: Technical Support for Justice for Children Programme on Long Term Agreement (3 years) (Opens for International Consultant only)

Consultant Programme & Policy

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, hope

Together with the Malaysian government and others who are truly passionate about child rights, UNICEF works in Malaysia to ensure every child has the opportunity to grow healthy and happy; live safely; and achieve their full potential.

With the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the 12th Malaysia plan as our guides, we endeavor to change minds, change policies, and in turn change the lives of all children in Malaysia.

https://www.unicef.org/malaysia/

Background UNICEF Malaysia’s work on access to justice for children, which is in line with UNICEF’s Reimagine Justice1 agenda, continues to be a core component of the UNICEF country programme. The justice programme has been growing steadily, and slowly making an impact for children in the justice system. The new country programme builds on the gains made during the last country programme with expansion in the areas of work in child justice based on increasing buy-in from government justice agencies. Partnerships with both government and non government stakeholders have also expanded. The work on justice has been guided by the recommendations from the “The Malaysian Juvenile Justice System: A Study of Mechanisms for Handling Children in Conflict with the Law”, the Diversion Pilot Evaluation recommendations, and recommendations from the policy briefs analysing the various legal and policy frameworks for child victims and witnesses in the criminal justice system.

Building on these recommendations, UNICEF Malaysia will continue to focus on facilitating access to high level technical support to assist the government in gaining exposure to best practices in the region and from other common law countries, invest in evidence generation (including via piloting of new models) to support evidence based advocacy and continue to advocate for removal of reservations to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Currently, the main interventions in these areas are enhancing capacity of duty bearers to create a child friendly justice system, development of child rights based diversion programmes as part of the overall initiative for reform of the justice for children system, strengthening the child victim support system, including handling of child victims in the trial process, strengthening laws and policies to ensure better protection of children as victims and also as offenders.

There have been various successful results achieved in recent years due to the high level technical assistance provided by external consultants. These include the Sexual Offences against Children Act 2017 which is largely compliant with international standards due to the technical assistance provided during the drafting of the Act. The provision of high level technical advice to the office of the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department on various issues related to child victims, had also led to UNICEF being recognised for its technical expertise. The provision of technical advice on diversion by UNICEF led to government to launch a diversion pilot in August 2019, which was also supported via technical support from UNICEF.

However, these reforms have not been without challenges and are yet to be fully implemented. Substantial gaps remain including lack of specialist child justice professionals, limited community-based services for diversion, alternatives to detention and child victim support services. At the same time, the substantial changes introduced to the justice system have been hindered by the lack of concomitant comprehensive capacity building and shifting of mindsets, both within the justice sector and amongst the public. As a result, the reforms have not yet achieved a level of coherence needed to create a comprehensive and integrated justice for children system in Malaysia. Recognizing these challenges, UNICEF Malaysia has been working continuously to support the Government of Malaysia to reform its legal framework and delivery of justice services to improve the protection of all children who enter the justice system. Malaysia is currently at a critical juncture where strong commitment and investments are needed for effective and coherent implementation of justice for children reforms.

Given the critical need for continued technical support to assist the government and other key stakeholders to strengthen access to justice for children, an individual consultant is currently being sought.

Objectives

The objective of this consultancy is to strengthen access to justice for children, specifically to support improving the child protection and child justice legal and policy framework in Malaysia, and building specialist capacity of justice agencies, including police, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, in handling of cases involving children in the justice system (this includes child victims and witnesses and children in conflict with the law) while applying multi-disciplinary and integrated approach.

Major Task to be accomplished

1. Provide technical support to the multiagency Taskforce on Diversion led by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development. This will include facilitating workshops/roundtable discussions, providing research support, developing materials, including training materials, facilitating linkages with external subject matter experts, amongst others.
2. Conduct analysis of laws, policies, procedures and protocols (such as codes of conduct, plans of action, practice directions etc) relevant to strengthen access to justice for children, in accordance with international norms/standards
3. Provide technical support in the drafting/review of legislation, regulations, policies related to access to justice in child protection and child justice
4. Support the development of justice agencies protocol, procedures and guidance
5. Develop training modules on issues related to access to justice for children and conduct capacity building
6. Provide technical support and build capacity of key stakeholders in areas related to access to justice for children
7. Provide on-going strategic advice and feedback, as needed, to the Child Protection team in relation to access to justice for children

PLEASE REFER TO DETAILED TERMS OF REFERENCE ATTACHED - LTA Justice for Children.pdf

Qualifications/ Specialized Knowledge/ Experience/ Language Skills required

• University degree in law, criminal justice, or other relevant field;
• At least 15 years relevant work experience, out of which at least 10 years practical experience working on children’s access to justice in child protection and child justice specifically in common law countries, including traditional diversion systems
• Demonstrated specialist knowledge in the field of access to justice for children
• Proven expertise in analysis and policy formulation in the area of justice for children
• Solid knowledge and understanding of international human rights laws and standards on access to justice for children;
• Knowledge of UNICEF justice and child protection strategy, including policy and guidelines on access to justice for children;
• Knowledge and experience of UNICEF’s work in a high-income country context, with the particular nature of UNICEF’s Malaysia profile, context in Malaysia, and specifically knowledge of the Malaysian criminal justice system
• Strong communication skills;
• Ability to draft clearly and concisely ideas and concepts in written and oral form;
• Experience in drafting laws and policies related to children in the justice system
• Experience in developing training materials and conducting capacity building
• Ability to provide high level technical advice and guidance for strategic thinking, programme planning and review and consultations with government stakeholders and other partners
• Fluency in English

How to apply:-

The application to be submitted through the online portal should contain the following separate attachments:

• A Cover letter explaining the motivation for applying and explaining the qualifications and skillset of the candidate that meet with the requirements in the TOR (to be uploaded online)
• Curriculum Vitae (CV) (to be uploaded online)
• References for similar consultancy assignments (including contact details of 3 referees) (to be uploaded online)
• Submission of 3 examples of previous work (in the last 3 years), including legal analysis and Sample of a training module developed for a justice agency (to be uploaded online)
• A financial proposal indicating daily professional fees in USD. (To be uploaded under other supporting documents).
• Certificates of mandatory courses (Ethics and Integrity at UNICEF (2020 version); Prevention of Sexual Harassment and Abuse of Authority (2021 version) & Sexual Exploitation Abuse (PSEA) (2021 version) consolidated in one single pdf. Note: If the LTA will include the optional fees for travel assignments, then BSAFE will be a mandatory course requirement to be added to the list of certificates to be uploaded at the time of application.

Important Note: Please do not indicate financials anywhere else in the online application form, please mark "n/a or 00", under the fee related questions in the online application form.

Without all the above 6 documents your application will be considered incomplete and invalid and will not be considered further.

• Any attempt to unduly influence UNICEF’s selection process will lead to automatic disqualification of the applicant.

• Joint applications of two or more individuals are not accepted.

• Please note, UNICEF does not charge any fee during any stage of the process.

• Female candidates meeting the requirements are strongly encouraged to apply.

• UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion and encourages qualified candidates from all backgrounds including persons living with disabilities to apply.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

Apply now

Added 25 days ago - Updated 6 hours ago - Source: unicef.org