Legal Research and Communication Officer (for National Internship)

Contract

This is a Internship contract. It usually requires 0 years of experience, depending on education. More about Internship contracts.

Background

Building on over 15 years of partnership with and assistance to the justice sector of Timor-Leste, UNDP’s new justice project, ‘Accelerating Access to Justice for All in Timor-Leste (AAJAT),’ will strengthen its support to the justice institutions with a specific focus on increasing access to justice of the disadvantaged groups, prominently represented by women and girls and GBV survivors. The beneficiary groups are deprived of a means to readily access the formal justice system due to pervasive poverty, illiteracy and language barrier, lack of information, and gendered social norms. Through this project, UNDP keeps positioning itself as one of the strategic partners of the justice institutions in terms of institutional capacity development in accelerating access to justice of women and girls. Key partners of the project are the Ministry of Justice, Public Defender’s Office, Office of Prosecutor-General, and the Court of Appeals. Project activities include support to the state-owned legal aid service to be gender-mainstreamed, institutionalization of survivor-centered approaches, and actions to enhance women’s representation in the justice sector. Mentoring young graduates of law schools will also be undertaken in parallel to responding to the shortage of human resources, especially women, as well as to supporting youth to navigate their career paths in the justice sector as socially and gender-sensitive future professionals.??

Duties and Responsibilities

The intern will work under the direct supervision of the Project Manager or equivalent and in close collaboration with all Project’s team. The selected person will support the Project team on legal research and communication of justice and other governance areas as follows:

• Conduct desk research of laws, case studies, situational analysis, and literature reviews on access to justice and other governance areas where required
• Support the Project Team in drafting and translating Portuguese and Tetun texts to English and vice versa
• Support the Project Team in reviewing reports from partner organizations, collecting, compiling, and analysing data from partners, and preparing project reports
• Record and draft meeting minutes?
• Lead and produce quality information and communication materials of the project activities for different audiences (e.g., knowledge products, newsletters, social media updates, factsheets, human stories, and project success stories)?
• Take pictures and videos of workshops and other project activities to inform progress of the project to donors and counterparts
• Conduct other duties as requested by Project Manager and the Project Team, including administrative, logistical, and financial support.

Competencies

Technical/Functional Competencies:

• Excellent writing skills in English, Tetun, and Portuguese, as well as strong analytical aptitude and strong communication skills;
• Ability to manage workload individually and collaborate with a wide range of colleagues while meeting deadlines;
• Excellent interpersonal skills: being able to listen and collaborate with a wide range of players, being able to work independently, being pro-active and taking initiatives;
• Creative skills to develop communication visuals;
• Computer proficiency: MS Office and Social Media

Personal Competencies:

• Commitment to UNDP's mission, vision and values;
• Sensitivity to cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age differences;
• Highest standards of integrity, discretion and team work

Impact of Results

• The incumbent will contribute to effective project implementation and communication with key stakeholders.?
• The incumbent will increase his/her sensitivity to and knowledge of social and gender justice, the justice sector, other governance areas, and the international development field. S/he will also develop his/her interpersonal and communication skills in the working environment.?

Required Skills and Experience

Applicants to the UNDP internship programme must at the time of application meet one of the following requirements: (a) Be enrolled in a graduate school programme (second university degree or equivalent, or higher) in the field of Law, Human Rights, International Relations, or related field (b) Be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (minimum Bachelor’s level or equivalent), in the field as define in (a).? (c) Have graduated with a university degree (as defined in (a) and (b) above) and, if selected, must start the internship within one-year of graduation.?

Language requirement: - Fluent in English and Portuguese with excellent writing skills?

Stipends:

• Interns may be given a stipend under the conditions prescribed in the section on stipends, below. Costs and arrangement for travel, visas, passports, accommodation and living expenses are the responsibility of:

  a. The nominating institution, related institution or government, which may provide the required financial assistance to its students; or

  b. The intern.

• Where an intern is not financially supported by any institution or programme, such as a university, government, foundation or scholarship programme, a stiped intended to help cover basic daily expenses related to the internship, such as meals and transportation at the duty station, must be paid by the receiving office.

• The monthly amount of the stipend wil be determined for each duty station based on the stiped rates published yearly by the OHR Policy and Compensatoin Unit. The stipend will be paid on a monthly basis and part-time internship arrangements are prorated accordingly.
• Where an intern is financially supported by an institution, government or third party, UNDP will, subject to the rules of such institution, government or third party, pay the intern the difference, if any, between the external financial support provided and the applicable UNDP Stipend.
• No other payments of any kind will be made to an intern by the office in connection with an internship agreement.

Insurance :

• Interns are responsible for securing adequate medical insurance for the duration of their internship with UNDP and must provide a medical certificate of good health prior to starting the internship. UNDP will not reimburse the medical insurance of the intern. Any costs arising from accidents and illness incurred during an internship assignment will be the responsibility of the intern.

• Selected candidate for internships must show proof of valid medica insurance for the duty station in which they will intern. Applicants that are neither nationals nor residents of the duty station, the insurance must include adequate coverage in the event of an injury or illness during the internship duration which:

  a) Requires transportation to the home country or country of residence for further treatment; b) Results in death and requires preparation and return of the remain to the home country, or country of residence.