National Consultant to support the Government of Syria to implement restorative justice approaches focusing on diversion and alternative measures to detention for children, Damascus, Syria

Contract

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For every child, commitment

BACKGROUND (RATIONALE AND CONTEXT):

The State of Syria’s 5th Periodic Report was due in 2015 and was submitted on the 10th of August 2017. The CRC’s pre-sessional working group convened, and the list of issues was sent to the State Party by the Committee. After the release of the Concluding Observations and the Recommendations in March 2019, UNICEF initiated the support to the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs and Population (SCFAP), to respond to accepted recommendations aiming at enhancing the protection of children and strengthening the Child Protection system in the country. One of the repetitive recommendations on periodic reports is the administration of justice, with details on victims and witnesses, and children in conflict with law in juvenile corrective and rehabilitation centres.

Children who committed any crime coded in the Syrian legislation are currently sentenced by juvenile courts and some of them are kept in custody in juvenile rehabilitation centres. Currently, the juvenile delinquent reform centres are run by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour or by NGOs. These centres are considered by the Law to be the places to provide psycho-social support for young offenders, vocational training as well as support to their personal development and eventual re-integration into society. However, reform institutions are often lacking strong in-house psycho-social, health expertise and other appropriate services for offenders; in addition, often, staff at the centres are not trained to give specialized care or support to juveniles. These Institutions usually don’t have the capacity to particularly follow up with all the offenders or extend any specialized service, mainly to ensure full rehabilitation and development of children accused or sentenced as perpetrators and are hosted in the juvenile reform. As a result, institutions are overloaded and with limited capacity to support children in rehabilitation centres and being overwhelmed with number of children who are placed in centres for longer period or less important reasons.

A comprehensive approach to justice for children shall start within the juvenile justice system reform to improve the current punitive justice with a restorative approach; therefore, and among the key deliverables to achieve this, the consultancy includes an assessment/desk review of the Syrian legal framework to identify key entry points to enhance restorative and diversion as well as the design and development of a training curricula for in-service justice practitioners.

Aiming also at identifying gaps in trial and pre-trial procedures, a round table discussion with juvenile judges will be organized around the country, which will also feed the training on child friendly judicial procedures. Finally, the consultancy also intends to build a model for reintegration of children from a community-based protection approach which includes the design of a package of services, among other key deliverables.

How can you make a difference?

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The overall aim is to support the Government’s decision makers to strengthen restorative justice and diversion in the country in line with international standards on child friendly legal procedures.

The deliverables of the consultancy are the following:

Objective: Enhancement of Child-friendly justice system with a restorative approach

1. Conduct an assessment/ desk review on the justice for children dimension in Syria with a focus on diversion and restorative approaches and prepare an inception report which includes a conceptual approach for the enhancement of diversion and restorative justice interventions in Syria.
2. Assess the gaps in capacities of social and legal duty bearers liaising with juvenile delinquents through round table discussions with juvenile judges and staff of juvenile delinquent centres. The assessment will inform the proposed approach in the inception report as well as the design of the training package for legal and administrative staff in contact with children.
3. Develop a framework on restorative juvenile justice approaches, and a plan-of-action for its implementation including guidelines/ standards operating procedures (SOPs), capacity building materials, preparation for piloting the restorative justice in a scalable way and engagement of the community in restorative justice interventions. Discussion and approval from governmental counterparts all the way.
4. Design and develop a training package for social workers and legal personnel, also as part of the package identify delivery methods including pool of resource persons.
5. Design a package of services/model to be piloted as community-based model for diversion through restorative justice approach.
6. Support the piloting of the Diversion and community-based restorative approaches and document the challenges and propose ways to overcome them.
7. Conduct review and update meetings with the steering committee to finalize the final draft of the SoPs on diversion and share with ministries and partners for review and approval.

KEY DELIVERABLES:

1. An inception report with detailed approach and action plan for the assignment
2. Framework for the restorative Justice system and action plan for piloting and scaling up.
3. Finalised SoPs and guidelines for implementation of diversion programme
4. Report on the capacity needs of duty bearers and NGOs staff who are co-managing the centres.
5. Finalized a training package building for legal and administrative staff and identify delivery methods including pool of resource persons.

All deliverables should adhere to UNICEF quality standards and should be approved by UNICEF.

LOCATION (GEOGRAPHIC AREA/ DUTY STATION): Damascus, Syria

On-site working days: 180 working days

Off-site working days:

Field Missions/Travel: Rural Damascus.

DURATION:

The consultant will work for a total of 180 working days within 18 months period.

The exact schedule of the activities will be agreed with the consultant based on the consultancy implementation progress.

SUPERVISOR:

The consultant will be supervised by the UNICEF Child Protection Specialist (P4), with regular meetings and briefings with the Child Protection officer (NOB) on the progress of the consultancy.

The steering committee will comprise the representatives of the major stakeholders including the Ministries of: Justice, Social Affairs and Labour, Interior, Culture, Education in addition to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), Syrian Society for Social Development (SSSD), and UNICEF. The steering committee will:

• • Provide clear specific advice, information and support to the consultant.
  • Support the implementation of the pilot project
  • Review the materials drafted and final report.

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT (TASKS, SMART DELIVERABLES, DEADLINES):

TRAVEL CONSIDERATIONS

Should “mission travel” be required, UNICEF will manage and pay for travel via Travel Authorization. However, this will be subject to the following prerequisites: Medical Clearance, Security Clearance through the Travel Request Information Process (TRIP) system, the Basic and Advanced Security in the Field Trainings, Travel Visa, and liability waiver.

Travel cost shall be calculated based on economy class travel, regardless of the length of travel. Costs for accommodation, meals and incidentals shall not exceed applicable daily subsistence allowance (DSA) rates, as promulgated by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC at http://icsc.un.org). The consultant must travel on UNICEF approved airlines.

PROPOSED PAYMENT SCHEDULE: By Deliverables

The payment of professional fees will be in instalments, based on the submission and acceptance of the agreed deliverables, against an accepted Implementation Report, as per the above schedule

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

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

1. Academic qualifications: University degree in social sciences, preferably in international law; or any other relevant field.

2. Work experience / Technical competencies:

• Minimum 2 years of relevant work experience in protection, preferably international experience in justice for children.
• Proven knowledge on child rights, child protection and justice for children.
• Experience in in restorative justice approaches and models;
• High analytical and conceptual skills and ability; Proven research and analytical skills, facilitation and developing written material (report writing)
• Proven ability to work within the international and multicultural environment.
• Understanding of child protection issues and services.
• Experience in collaborating Government’s and/or NGOs’ social welfare staff; and experience in program design, administration, monitoring and evaluation in related fields is an asset.
• Knowledge of the Child Protection Laws, UNCRC and other relevant conventions and international regulations on child protection and justice for children.
• Good negotiation skills and flexibility.
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills.

3. Language requirement: Fluent speaking of Arabic and English, both languages are required for the consultancy

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: https://www.unicef.org/careers/get-prepared#Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

EVALUATION PROCESS (OF APPLICATIONS):

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

1. Applications through UNICEF’s Talent Management System (TMS)

2. Cover Letter

3. CV.

4. Financial quote as lump sum for professional fees only, Travel & Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) will be covered by UNICEF Syria..

5. At least 3 Referees from Direct Supervisors

Shortlisted applicants may be invited for further technical assessment. Final recommendation will be made based on “best value for money”, i.e. the hiring section/office shall normally select the individual who quoted the lowest fee from among the candidates who are assessed as suitable for achieving all tasks on time, as per the criteria stipulated in this ToR, and based on the outcome of the evaluation/assessment conducted.

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.

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 the 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.