Overview
The Protection Associate provides functional protection support to information management and programme staff, coordinating timely and effective protection responses to the needs of populations of concern and identifying opportunities to mainstream protection methodologies.
Key Responsibilities
- Monitor protection standards, operational procedures and practices in protection delivery.
- Coordinate quality, timely and effective protection responses to the needs of populations of concern.
- Identify opportunities to mainstream protection methodologies and integrate protection safeguards in operational responses.
- Contribute to designing a comprehensive protection strategy.
- Liaise externally with authorities and partners on protection doctrine and policy.
- Ensure that populations of concern are involved in making decisions that affect them.
- Build and maintain effective interfaces with communities of concern, local authorities and protection and assistance partners.
- Stay abreast of political, social, economic and cultural developments that have an impact on the protection environment.
- Consistently apply International and National Law and applicable UN/UNHCR and IASC policy, standards and codes of conduct.
- Assist in providing comments on existing and draft legislation related to populations of concern.
- Provide advice on protection issues to populations of concern.
- Liaise with competent authorities to ensure the issuance of personal and other relevant documentation.
- Assist in conducting eligibility and status determination for populations of concern.
- Contribute to measures to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness.
- Contribute to a country-level child protection plan as part of the protection strategy.
- Contribute to a country-level education plan as part of the protection strategy.
- Monitor Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all protection/solutions activities.
- Manage individual protection cases including those on GBV and child protection.
- Monitor, and intervene in cases of refoulement, expulsion and other protection incidents.
- Assist in identifying durable solutions for the largest possible number of populations of concern through voluntary repatriation, local integration and where appropriate, resettlement.
- Contribute to the design, implementation and evaluation of protection related AGD based programming with implementing and operational partners.
- Facilitate effective information management through the provision of disaggregated data on populations of concern and their problems.
- Participate in initiatives to capacitate authorities, relevant institutions and NGOs to strengthen national protection related legislation and procedures.
- Assist the supervisor in prioritizing populations of concern for interview, counselling and propose protection support for individual cases.
- Assist the supervisor with enforcing compliance of local implementing partners with global protection policies and standards of professional integrity in the delivery of protection services.
- Assist the supervisor with enforcing compliance with, and integrity of, all protection standard operating procedures.
- Submit individual payments request for populations of concern for approval.
- 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.
Required Experience
- Relevant professional experience in national law and international law, including international refugee protection, human rights or international humanitarian law;
- Very good knowledge of International Refugee Law and ability to apply the relevant legal protection principles;
- Knowledge of UNHCR’s protection standards and policies, including as they relate to legal and physical protection, legal aid, detention monitoring and case management
- Previous experience with organizing and facilitating capacity building initiatives, including workshops and training activities, particularly for government counterparts
- Excellent legal research, analysis, and drafting skills, with strategic thinking and stakeholder engagement capabilities.
Qualifications
International Law, Political Science or other related field
