The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was established by the UN General Assembly in 1993. The OHCHR’s mandate comes from the Charter of the United Nations, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, and General Assembly resolution 48/141
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is to work for the protection of all human rights for all people; to help empower people to realize their rights; and to assist those responsible for upholding such rights in ensuring that they are implemented.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Regional Office for Southern Africa (ROSA) is based in Pretoria, South Africa, and covers Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In addition to the staff in Pretoria, OHCHR has Human Rights Advisors in Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe and has a project with staff based in Mozambique.
A Human Rights Advisor is due to be deployed to Eswatini in 2021. The Regional Office provides technical support and guidance to Resident Coordinators (RCs), UN Country Teams (UNCTs), States, national human rights institutions, civil society and other stakeholders on early warning and prevention, enhancing participation and protecting civic space, strengthening rule of law, accountability and national human rights institutions, advancing equality and non-discrimination, addressing gender-based violence, integrating human rights in sustainable development and supporting States and other stakeholders to engage with and follow up to recommendations of human rights mechanisms.
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The work of the Regional Office includes identifying, collecting, processing and sharing data, information and analysis of human rights trends in the region, ensuring support to RCs/UNCTs as well as other OHCHR presences in the region.
This work requires human rights and information management expertise to better advocate for the protection of human rights by strengthening its analysis with accurate supporting data, empowering the Office to take a more active inter-agency leadership role and to better engage key decision-makers with compelling analytical and data-driven information and preventative measures in support of early action. This post is located in the ROSA of the United Nations OHCHR. The objective of this 1-year NUNV post is to support ROSA in promoting and protecting human rights throughout the Southern Africa region.
Task description
Under the direct supervision of the Human Rights Officer in charge of the Emergency Response Team in the OHCHR Regional Office for Southern Africa, the NUNV will undertake the following tasks:
• Researches and collects information pertaining to human rights matters, including their gender dimensions, from a variety of data sources (e.g. communications, publications, the press) and through remote monitoring to keep abreast of relevant issues/events in the Southern Africa Region and provide up-to-date information;
• Assists in the analysis of information, to include the impact on the countries and thematic mandates on the human rights situation in assigned area, with a focus on vulnerable groups, and supports the development of early warning analysis and the identification of preventative measures to address human rights protection needs;
• Participates in meetings and consultations; prepare summaries of results/outcomes;
• Reviews human rights issues, including their gender dimensions, and participates in discussions with other Human Rights Officers on the integration of these issues into political, humanitarian and socio-economic efforts and programmes;
• Work on civic space and participation in relation to early warning, prevention and early action measures in relation to civil society actors and human rights defenders;
• Drafts a variety of reports and correspondence relating to human rights matters;
• Performs other related duties as required.
Required experience
3 years of experience in Human Rights, Political Affairs, International Relations, Law or related area is required.
• Experience working with international human rights standards, instruments and mechanisms is desirable;
• Experience in human rights monitoring and reporting and/or in building capacity for the promotion and protection of human rights is desirable.
• Internships and voluntary work may be considered at 50% if deemed relevant;
• Previous experience as a volunteer and/or experience of another culture, (i.e. studies, volunteer work, internship) would be highly regarded.
