Senior Legal Associate

A (least hardship)FamilyFamily GS7General Service

Reason

Regular > Regular AssignmentNo2025-01-01December 1, 2024

Senior Legal Associate

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

The Senior Legal Associate is a member of the protection /legal team and normally reports to a higher grade professional staff.

The Senior Legal Associate assists an office in providing quality, timely and effective protection responses to the needs of populations of concern. He is also required to assist an office in ensuring that persons of concern are involved with the office in making decisions that affect them, whether in accessing their rights or in identifying appropriate solutions to their problems. To achieve this, the incumbent will need to build and maintain effective interfaces with communities of concern and authorities as well as protection and assistance partners.
The incumbent may supervise interns, volunteers and interpreters, and may also supervise some support staff. S/he assists the protection team, in making sure that protection standards, operational procedures and practices in protection delivery are in line with the international standards, and provides functional protection support and advice to other protection colleagues and other units.

S/he contributes to implementing, and adjusting when necessary, the office's comprehensive protection strategy including the role of UNHCR in the context of further strengthening the national capacity of relevant actors, both governmental e.g. Ministry of Justice, and non-governmental, e.g. NGOs and lawyers. In this regard, s/he represents the office externally on protection doctrine and policy as needed and under the guidance by the supervisor.

S/he also works independently in constantly monitoring relevant legal and political developments, in both asylum and statelessness issues, and provides recommendations to the protection team on appropriate advocacy and interventions for the office to make.

The incumbent will be conducting researches and following the judicial developments at the national and regional level. S/he will be supporting the preparation of legal materials that are shared with the national counterparts as recommendations. S/he will be engaged in preparing compilation of good practices and comparative charts on a broad spectrum of topics and reporting of the developments. The incumbent will also support organizing capacity-building activities through preparation of materials and presenting the topics.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR's core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties
- Assist in the preparation of legal advice and drafting of position papers and guidelines on pertinent legal and operational issues.
- Stay abreast of the domestic legal issues and pertinent laws regarding persons of concern and advise the office accordingly.
- Contribute to advocacy towards proper interpretation of law and doctrine as well as in the development of standards of protection.
- Liaise with the Legal Affairs Service on issues related to immunities of UNHCR personnel and provide corresponding guidance and support locally to concerned staff.
- Liaise and intervene with national, regional or local authorities in relation to the above areas of responsibility, as required.
- Assist in the organization of training sessions for legal professionals and asylum case workers and judges in the field of asylum.
- Consistently apply international and national law and UNHCR policies and standards.
- Assist the office in providing legal counselling to persons of concern.
- Assist in the collection and analysis of relevant legal and protection information.
- Provide assistance in UNHCR's legal publications, in dissemination of legal information on refugee law, in UNHCR's legal website and other legal advice as needed.
- Support translation of legal and policy documents and act as interpreter at high level meetings with the authorities when needed.
- Provide advice and support the office reviewing their contracts.
- Provide support on a wide range of corporate and institutional issues, including on the interpretation and application of UNHCR regulations, rules, policies and procedures within the local legislation context.
- Assist the office in providing legal counselling to personnel on various types of contractual arrangements.
- In close cooperation with the Protection team, assist UNHCR's drafting of law commentaries to draft national legislation related to refugee law, in compliance with UNHCR's positions and Guidelines.
- Support the Protection team in maintaining and strengthening relations with governmental, as well as non-governmental, actors in order to strengthen a network for assisting refugees and asylum seekers and also in strategically approach both national and local political figures.
- Prepare drafts for office correspondence concerning protection issues.
- Monitor/make briefing on legislative/judicial developments for the purpose of preparing office responses and/or to feed into briefing kits for external visitors.
- Support the implementation of activities with various institutions and civil society partners.

- Support the identification and management of risks and seek to seize opportunities impacting objectives in the area of responsibility. Ensure decision making in risk based in the functional area of work. Raise risks, issues and concerns to a supervisor or to relevant functional colleague(s).

- Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications

Years of Experience / Degree Level
For G7 - 4 years relevant experience with High School Diploma; or 2 years relevant work experience with Bachelor or equivalent or higher

Field(s) of Education
Not applicable.

Certificates and/or Licenses
Human Rights
International Humanitarian Law

Law
Political Science
(Certificates and Licenses marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Relevant Job Experience
Essential
Experience in dealing with authorities as well as within a multicultural environment.

Desirable
Good knowledge of UNHCR's protection mandate. Work experience in human rights issues and/or refugee law is an asset.

Functional Skills
CO-Drafting and Documentation
IT-Computer Literacy
LE-Legal Research
(Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Language Requirements
For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.
For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.
For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.


All UNHCR workforce members must individually and collectively, contribute towards a working environment where each person feels safe, and empowered to perform their duties. This includes by demonstrating no tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment including sexual harassment, sexism, gender inequality, discrimination and abuse of power.

As individuals and as managers, all must be proactive in preventing and responding to inappropriate conduct, support ongoing dialogue on these matters and speaking up and seeking guidance and support from relevant UNHCR resources when these issues arise.

This is a Standard Job Description for all UNHCR jobs with this job title and grade level. The Operational Context may contain additional essential and/or desirable qualifications relating to the specific operation and/or position. Any such requirements are incorporated by reference in this Job Description and will be considered for the screening, shortlisting and selection of candidates.

This is a Standard Job Description for all UNHCR jobs with this job title and grade level. The Operational Context may contain additional essential and/or desirable qualifications relating to the specific operation and/or position. Any such requirements are incorporated by reference in this Job Description and will be considered for the screening, shortlisting and selection of candidates.

- UNHCR advocates for the adoption of a refugee legislation and an IDP law. Therefore, exposure to work on policy and legislative development is essential.
- Prior litigation experience within the domestic context on civil, administrative, and special procedures cases (such as naturalization cases) is preferred.
- Experience working with the Government, UN agencies or any development or humanitarian organizations is desired.

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Operational context

Occupational Safety and Health Considerations:

To view occupational safety and health considerations for this duty station, please visit: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel

Nature of Position:

The Philippines is a State Party to the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the 1954 Statelessness Convention and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. It is also a party to eight out of nine core international human rights instruments. UNHCR in the Philippines provides technical support and plays a supervisory role in ensuring that the State upholds its commitments under relevant international Conventions. Philippines is the only one to have implemented the provisions of the Convention in both letter and spirit. It provides recognized refugees with legal status including the right to work. It allows refugees ultimately to become citizens of the Philippines.
The Philippines has established an interagency coordinating platform for the protection needs of the forcibly displaced and stateless persons. The Philippines also hosts the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) allowing urgent resettlement to third countries of refugees at risk of refoulement elsewhere in the region and the world. It has recently implemented a pilot Complementary Pathways through Education, allowing young Rohingya refugees to access free tertiary education through partner academic institutions.
The Philippines is likewise a regional leader in its approach to stateless populations. It is the only signatory to the 1954 Statelessness Convention in Southeast Asia and the first to ratify the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness within the region. It has created a National Action Plan for the reduction and prevention of statelessness and is actively pursuing the resolution of statelessness for Indonesian descent, in southern Philippines; Sama Bajau and unregistered children displaced within the context of armed conflict.
Following the closure of UNHCR Field Office in Mindanao in December 2022, UNHCR has shifted its role by providing strategic support, through its Manila Office, to the Government on protection of IDPs and pursuing durable solutions consistent with the UN Secretary General’s Action Agenda on Internal Displacement.
Aligned with UNHCR’s multi-year strategy, amplified engagement with the legislative branch of the Government to pursue the normative framework agenda will be undertaken. This may require submission of interventions on the relevant bills being advocated by UNHCR for and with the forcibly displaced populations and stateless persons. Currently, UNHCR is actively advocating for the enactment of the national and sub-national IDP rights-based Law, the Comprehensive Law on Refugees and Stateless Persons, the Facilitated Naturalization Law for Refugees and Stateless Persons, among others. The Senior Legal Associate is expected to be familiar with the protection principles, the legislative context in the country, and the relevant organizational structure and key players to be able to effectively provide legal interventions when required, in pursuit of this goal.

Advocacy for protection will be pursued by the Senior Legal Associate, particularly on cases requiring immediate interventions within the context of deprivation of liberty and accelerated asylum cases at the ports of entry.
Durable solution for refugees and stateless persons through naturalization, is also a goal for UNHCR. While there were already a few cases of successfully recognized refugees, UNHCR will increase its campaign to reach more refugees to willfully consider the advantages of naturalization. With the recent issuance of the Rule on Facilitated Naturalization for Refugees and Stateless Persons, the Senior Legal Associate is expected to be well-versed with the domestic citizenship laws, procedures and regulations in support of refugees and stateless persons who will need such advice. Working closely with private counsels or with the Public Attorney’s Office on these cases, the Senior Legal Associate will provide strategic advice to ensure that naturalization cases filed will prosper.
The Senior Legal Associate will work closely with the Protection Unit to meet the demands for the expansion of the network of partners to complement Government services by supporting in the negotiating, drafting and concluding of Memorandum of Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding and similar instruments. Similarly, the Senior Legal Associate will provide a first level review of commercial contracts and similar instruments that will have an impact on the operation, while ensuring that close collaboration with the Legal Affairs Section in the region is maintained.

Living and Working Conditions:

 

Additional Qualifications

Skills

CO-Drafting and Documentation, IT-Computer Literacy, LE-Legal Research

Certifications

Human Rights - Other, International Law - Other, Law - Other, Political Science - Other

Competencies

Accountability, Analytical thinking, Client & results orientation, Commitment to continuous learning, Communication, Empowering & building trust, Judgement & decision making, Managing performance, Organizational awareness, Planning & organizing, Political awareness, Teamwork & collaboration

https://icsc.un.org/Home/SalaryScales

Compendium

Additional Information

This position doesn't require a functional clearance