Senior Human Rights Officer, P-5

Position description

Org. Setting and Reporting

This post is found in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Country Office in Sudan. The position is based in Khartoum but has been temporarily relocated to Nairobi until conditions allow for deployment to Khartoum. The post reports to the Head of Office.

Responsibilities

Within delegated authority, the Senior Human Rights Officer will be responsible for the following duties:

• Oversees engagement of the Office in relation to protection and humanitarian action, and represents the Office in coordination mechanisms.
• Formulates human rights strategies, including from a gender equality perspective; develops a vision or direction for work on human rights matters and creates the conditions for implementing that vision or direction.
• Advises senior officials on human rights matters.
• Represents the Office on matters of human rights, as delegated.
• Negotiates directly with relevant parties the human rights elements of peace accords or the human rights concerns while long range solutions are sought.
• Proposes policy directives and plan of action to appropriate United Nations bodies for immediate and long- range solutions to human rights problems in general and specific geographical areas.
• Designs, develops and implements significant policy and program changes to address regional or global human rights issues, including their gender dimensions.
• Formulates the programme of work, budget and medium-term plan of the unit and participates in the overall formulation and approval of the programme of work, and administrative matters concerning the Office.
• Prepares human rights reports on key sectors or key developments.
• Develops and maintains relations with other UN entities, international organisations and government officials and engages with them on human rights issues and policies.
• Coordinates and oversees human rights research initiatives, as relevant.
• Manages, coordinates, organizes and supervises human rights officers or organizational units as assigned, including on monitoring and analysis.
• Leads team members’ efforts to collect and analyze data and provides insight to identify trends or patterns for data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting. Ensures that everyone can discover, access, integrate and share the data they need.
• Performs other related duties as required.

Competencies

• Professionalism: Knowledge of and exposure to a range of human rights issues including approaches and techniques to address and advise on highly sensitive and complex problems in their political, ethnic, racial, gender and socio-economic dimensions. Knowledge of institutional mandates of human rights organizations, prevailing policies and procedures. Ability to evaluate and integrate information from a variety of sources and assess impact on the human rights situation in the region or country of assignment, including the political environment and legal statutes as they pertain to human rights. Ability to complete in-depth studies and reach conclusions on possible causes and solutions to human rights problems in specific societies and systems. Ability to relate and advise on human rights issues and perspectives, including their gender equality dimensions, to political, social, economic and humanitarian programmes in affected countries and areas. Knowledge of humanitarian and crisis coordination mechanisms. Shows pride in work and in achievements; demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter; is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; is motivated by professional rather than personal concerns; shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations. Able to analyze and interpret data in support of decision-making and convey resulting information to management.
• Accountability: Takes ownership of all responsibilities and honours commitments; delivers outputs for which one has responsibility within prescribed time, cost and quality standards; operates in compliance with organizational regulations and rules; supports subordinates, provides oversight and takes responsibility for delegated assignments; takes personal responsibility for his/her own shortcomings and those of the work unit, where applicable.
• Teamwork: Works collaboratively with colleagues to achieve organizational goals; solicits input by genuinely valuing others’ ideas and expertise; is willing to learn from others; places team agenda before personal agenda; supports and acts in accordance with final group decision, even when such decisions may not entirely reflect own position; shares credit for team accomplishments and accepts joint responsibility for team shortcomings.
• Managing Performance: Delegates the appropriate responsibility, accountability and decision-making authority; makes sure that roles, responsibilities and reporting lines are clear to each staff member; accurately judges the amount of time and resources needed to accomplish a task and matches task to skills; monitors progress against milestones and deadlines; regularly discusses performance and provides feedback and coaching to staff; encourages risk-taking and supports creativity and initiative; actively supports the development and career aspirations of staff; appraises performance fairly.
• Judgement/Decision-making: Identifies the key issues in a complex situation, and comes to the heart of the problem quickly; gathers relevant information before making a decision; considers positive and negative impacts of decisions prior to making them; takes decisions with an eye to the impact on others and on the Organization; proposes a course of action or makes a recommendation based on all available information; checks assumptions against facts; determines the actions proposed will satisfy the expressed and underlying needs for the decision; makes tough decisions when necessary.

Education

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in law, political science, international relations, social sciences or related field. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Work Experience

• A minimum of ten years of progressively responsible experience in human rights, political affairs, international relations, law or related area is required. At least three years of field experience is required, including in conflict or crisis settings. Experience in managing diverse teams is required. Experience in human rights monitoring and analysis is desirable. Experience in humanitarian action and engaging with humanitarian and crisis coordination mechanisms is desirable.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the position advertised, fluency in English (both oral and written) is required. Knowledge of Arabic is desirable.

Application instructions

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