Legal Aid Officer (For Afghan Nationals Only)

Job Description

Under the supervision of the PRoL Team Leader, she/he will provide legal counseling, legal information and awareness and identify legal needs of women and girls. The Legal Aid Officer will be responsible for conducting legal information sessions, capacity building of case workers and follow ups, awareness creation on rights of women and girls under the Afghanistan Laws as well as provide timely practical legal advice, assisting women and girls to access their legal rights and find solutions to their legal challenges.

Program Planning and Implementation:

- Provide quality administrative, registration and legal advice/aid to clients in need.

- Support individual cases, provide accurate legal advice and assistance to women and girls on accessing civil documentation and relevant procedures. In certain cases, assist in accessing these documents by administrative support and/or accompaniment to administrative authorities. - Support building capacities of IRC case workers on legal procedures for civil documentation, specifically for women and girls.

- For cases falling outside the scope of work, the Legal Aid Officer will facilitate referrals to existing legal aid service providers and networks, as well as conduct follow-ups to ensure successful interventions. - Support the establishment of appropriate Standard Operating Procedures for the identification, referral and response to individual civil administrative and legal cases - Assist in the development of legal information and awareness materials and support targeted outreach sessions on relevant legal aid matters. - Maintain complete, accurate, and confidential client records for review by the PRoL Team Leader. - Ensure that principles of confidentiality and ethics are upheld throughout the program implementation. - Prepare and update detailed work plans regarding administrative, registration and legal advice services. - Provide regular reports and briefings to the PRoL Team Leader and Deputy PRoL Manager on case types and progress of women and girls seeking support for claiming of civil documents, access to registration and related legal aid matters.

Coordination & Representation

- Collaborate closely with the PRoL Team Leader, Deputy PRoL Manager and the protection monitoring team in the identification of recurring registration and legal challenges facing women and girls and based on this develop information materials on administrative requirements and processes for acquiring and recovering civil documentation. - Initiate linkages with other legal aid service providers for the referral of cases that may require additional legal support. - Participate in liaison, coordination, and information sharing activities with national NGOs, international organizations, donors and government

- Assist in advocacy actions relating to legal matters for better protection of women and girls

Monitoring

- With the direction of the PRoL Team Leader ensure implementation of the agreed upon work plan and quality of technical activities, share relevant information and direction to improve quality and achieve timelines - Support Legal Aid Manager in assessing progress (against project objectives) and identify technical quality issues and/or other implementation issues, provide solutions and implement modifications as required. - Contribute to IRC and donor reports as per set schedules (monthly, quarterly and annually) on activities, indicators and achievements.

Qualifications

- University degree in law or Sharia Law. - At least 3-4 years of prior professional experience as a practicing lawyer or in a position where legal advice, counselling and assistance was frequently provided to vulnerable clients. - Strong knowledge civil law, legal assistance/pro bono legal work. - Experience working on women’s rights a plus - Experience providing legal counselling and assistance on issues. - Proven abilities in developing work plans, data collection and analysis and monitoring. - Experience analyzing data on the legal environment and using this analysis to inform programming and advocacy. - Excellent written and oral communication skills, cultural sensitivity, flexibility, ability to improvise, excellent relationship-building, effective in representation and liaison with external actors, team player and comfortable in a multi-cultural environment. - Ability to work under pressure and to handle sensitive situations diplomatically - Fluency in English, Pashto and/or Dari.