National Consultancy on child friendly legal aid in Sri Lanka (remote)

Contract

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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, Protection

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of the assignment:

Consultancy to undertake a review of the current system for legal aid for children in Sri Lanka and develop child-friendly legal aid guidelines for all children in contact with the law in Sri Lanka, for the improvement of access to child friendly legal aid in Sri Lanka.

Context:

Children come into contact with the law for various reasons – as defendants or witnesses in criminal proceedings; as parties in family proceedings; as victims of physical or psychological violence, sexual abuse or other crimes or rights violations; and as parties in civil or administrative proceedings on issues including health care, social security, disability, and asylum and refugee claims. The outcomes of these cases can be hugely significant for the children’s lives in both the long term and the short term. They can determine whether the children go into detention, whom they will live with, what contact they can have with their parents and siblings, which country they will live in and where they will go to school. Most children who are in contact with the law find the actual experience of legal proceedings confusing at best and a source of fear, distress and secondary victimization at worst. It is not unusual for them to find it difficult to communicate with the adults involved, to mistrust police and judges, to lack basic information and understanding about processes and procedures, and to face discrimination because of their age, gender or other characteristics such as living and working on the street or seeking asylum. Recalling painful events can be very stressful for child victims and witnesses, and if the legal procedure is not child-sensitive it may have long-term and harmful consequences for their recovery.

In Sri Lanka, according to the most recent government data (2019), there are 10,632 children (+60 per cent girls) living in 379 Child Care Institutions. The majority (87 per cent) of institutions are Voluntary Children’s Homes that are funded by sources other than the government. Children placed in institutions are there either on a court order, or based on a decision made by the Probation Commissioner. Over 500 children are in Remand Homes (221) and Certified Schools (291), deprived of their liberty often with long custodial sentences (three years) for minor crimes and misdemeanours. An additional group of children and young people (37 according to the latest Prison Department statistics) between the ages of 16-17 are in adult prisons. These children, as victims, in need of care and protection, or in conflict with the law are often mixed up in the same institutions and lack access to legal aid.

In Sri Lanka, the procedural law that governs the child protection and justice system is the Children and Young Persons Ordinance (CYPO) of 1939. The CYPO does not guarantee children and young people the right to legal representation. The right to a fair trial by a competent court, and the right to be heard before such a court, are guaranteed to all persons by Article 13(3) of the Constitution of Sri Lanka. While Article 13 deals with a number of issues relating to due process, the right to legal aid is not explicitly included, and is implicitly inferred. This right to a lawyer in criminal proceedings is codified within section 260 of Sri Lanka’s Code of Criminal Procedure, and within the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act. The ICCPR Act guarantees everyone charged with an offence the right to defend themselves in person or through legal assistance of their choosing and to have legal assistance assigned to them in appropriate cases where the interest of justice so requires and without payment if they do not have sufficient means (s.4(b), (c)). The Act also guarantees every child the right to have legal assistance by the State at the State’s expense in criminal proceedings affecting the child, but only if “substantial injustice would otherwise result” (s.5(d)). For children in conflict with the law, the international standard is that “Children have the right to legal or other appropriate assistance , including access to free legal aid under the same or more lenient conditions as adults” . Under the Civil Procedure Code Ordinance, child plaintiffs in civil proceedings must initiate an action through a guardian ad litem and the court is required to appoint a guardian ad litem to act on behalf of any child who is a defendant in a civil action. Where there is no other person fit and willing to act as a guardian, the Court may appoint any of its officers to be the guardian ad litem. However, these provisions apply only to children who are parties to civil proceedings. No provision is made to appoint a guardian ad litem or other legal representative to represent the rights and interest of children in civil disputes where they are not a direct party but where their rights and interests are affected (e.g. in custody disputes between parents). At the national level the Legal Aid Law establishes a Legal Aid Commission to administer a legal aid scheme and manage the Legal Aid Fund. In practice – children at the Children’s Court in Battaramulla have access to legal aid in relation to care and protection cases, but this is not systematic throughout the country.

In conclusion – the law does not clearly provide children with access to legal aid – including expert advice and representation throughout their journey through the legal process. In addition, provision of legal aid is not systematically offered to children in contact with the law throughout the country. For children in custodial sentences, or who have been removed from their families due to protection concerns, their main point of contact is the Probation Officer.

Through the Support to the Justice Sector in Sri Lanka project, funded by the EU, UNICEF proposes to contract a National Consultant to undertake a review of the current system for legal aid for children in Sri Lanka; make concrete recommendations to strengthen legal aid for all children in contact with the law in Sri Lanka; and develop child friendly legal aid guidelines for Sri Lanka. In the spirit of sharing experiences from other countries, UNICEF also proposes to hire an international consultant to support the national consultant with this assignment.

Duty station – Remote (Home Based)

Expected Duration of the consultancy: 28th August 2023 to 30th November 2023

Scope of Work:

1. Goal and Objective:

To undertake a review of the laws, policy and practice related to the provision of legal aid to children in contact with the law in Sri Lanka; develop concrete recommendations to strengthen access to legal aid for children in Sri Lanka; and develop child-friendly legal aid guidelines to be used by lawyers, legal assistants and other staff engaged in legal aid for children.

2. Activities and Tasks:

• Meet with relevant government authorities, members of the Private Bar and CSO legal aid providers to collect and document information on the situation of legal aid for children in Sri Lanka, including statistics on the number of children currently receiving legal aid, ease of access to and mechanisms for a child to access legal aid in Sri Lanka, including time period and bottlenecks.

• Based on the findings, draft a brief analysis report on the legal aid system for children in Sri Lanka, specifically in relation to access to child friendly legal aid.

• Submit a draft of the report to UNICEF, MoJ and LAC for a discussion and review before finalisation of the report.

• Following the results and recommendations of the report, call for a meeting of relevant government stakeholder and non-governmental stakeholders to discuss the results of the finalised report and further recommendations to improve legal aid for children.

• Based on the review and findings, and after conducting a literature review of existing international child friendly legal aid guidelines, draft a set of contextualised legal aid guidelines for Sri Lanka.

• Submit the draft guidelines to UNICEF, MoJ and LAC for review and finalisation.

3. Work relationships:

Under the direct supervision of the Chief of Child Protection, the consultant will work closely with the Child Protection team in Colombo, the international consultant, as well as the Legal Aid Commission and Ministry of Justice

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum Qualifications required:

Education: Master’s degree in law, human rights, social work, criminology or related field.

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required

Experience: At least 10 years of experience in the justice field with a focus on children or juvenile justice is preferred.

Specialised Knowledge on legal aid and access to justice for children is preferred.

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:

**Please submit your completed e-Recruitment application, cover letter, resume, highest educational qualification and financial proposal to undertake the mentioned TOR

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.