Child Protection Consultant – Baltic States

01 April – 01 August 2018

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. UNHCR teams are present in 128 countries, working hard to help the displaced, specializing in a wide range of disciplines, including legal protection, administration, community services, public affairs and health.

Background

The UNHCR Regional Representation for Northern Europe is based in Stockholm, Sweden and is responsible for eight countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. A key priority for the Office in Stockholm is to support the realisation of standardised child-friendly asylum and migration procedures throughout the region, which ensure that children are protected and can access procedures and solutions in accordance with their best interests. UNHCR has together with UNICEF and IRC recently developed a roadmap to support states to better operationalise their response for the reception and protection of UASC in Europe – the Way Forward to Strengthened Policies and Practices for Unaccompanied and Separated Children in Europe. This roadmap contains recommendations for efficient, lean and harmonized processes which ensure children are protected and can access procedures and solutions in accordance with their best interests are based on consultations with practitioners from nearly all European states, consultation with European Union (EU) level actors, Member States, and individual or group discussions with UASC living in Europe.

Objective

UNHCR RRNE is seeking a consultant with experience in child protection to draft a report that would provide a comprehensive overview of national systems and practices for unaccompanied and separated refugee and migrant children in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The report shall support the Baltic States to better operationalise their response for the protection of unaccompanied or separated children as well as to harmonize national processes and procedures with relevant international and regional standards.

Responsibilities

The consultant will undertake a desk-based research and produce a report mapping current national standards and procedures concerning identification, registration and referral, also reception conditions for unaccompanied or separated children and practices with regard to best interest assessment and determination. The report shall help to understand better how the rights of migrant and asylum-seeking children are respected in the Baltic States. The report will suggest concrete recommendations as to how legal, policy and practice frameworks can be strengthened and extended to ensure full realization and protection of children and their entitlements. The consultant will support UNHCR in the planning and delivery of national workshops and provide child protection expertise at these workshops. The consultant will consolidate the feedback from the workshops and will develop a final report.

Skills and Qualifications:

Corporate

Demonstrates integrity by upholding the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNHCR;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, national and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Technical/Functional

Excellent writing, editing and communications skills in English;
Knowledge of one of the Baltic languages (Estonian, Latvian or Lithuanian) is an asset;
Strong interpersonal skills, and ability to promote collaboration and consensus building;
Excellent analytical skills, ability to multi-task;
IT literacy, including the ability to operate with on-line web-based applications;
Familiarity with various writing techniques.

Minimum Requirements, Qualifications and Experience

A university degree in law and a minimum of four years professional work experience in child protection.
Experience in the delivery of child protection trainings or other capacity building initiatives is an asset.
Experience in leading various projects and organizing roundtables, workshops and seminars.

Contractual arrangement and salary

According to standard UN contracts for national consultants or affiliate workforce.

Must be available for some travel to Sweden and in the Baltic States.

To apply:

Send your application – personal letter, CV AND P11 form – in English by e-mail to [email protected] or by post to UNHCR, Ynglingagatan 14, 113 47 Stockholm, SWEDEN.

Mark your application “Child Protection Consultant – Baltic States.”

Closing date: 05 March 2018

Only short-listed will be contacted.

For more information please contact [email protected]

Issued on 15 February 2018

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