Organisation: Minority
Rights Group (MRG)
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
Minority Rights
Group International is currently working with civil society partners in Africa
(primarily in the Great Lakes, Horn and East regions) to build strong long-term leadership and
organizational capacity of minority-based and interethnic NGOs and community
based organizations to enable them to promote the human and minority rights of
minority communities.
Job Summary: The Legal Officer will support the Minority
Rights Group International by working in liaison with local partners and
lawyers to build communities’ legal skills, offer support for community-led litigation to
address rights violations, enable activists to improve their advocacy, and
pilot appropriate accountability mechanisms to increase decision-makers’
sensitivity to the concerns of marginalised minority groups. The incumbent may
also work on improving the knowledge of legal professionals on international
standards and national laws that address or impact on minorities and indigenous
peoples.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
1.
Litigation and legal empowerment Work:
·
Responsible for the delivery of legal cases work
within MRG’s programme of litigation, including identifying potential new
cases, assessing their merits, developing case strategies, researching and
drafting legal arguments, advising partners and lawyers on collection of
evidence and on case strategies, attending and representing community in legal
hearings, organising and participating in community consultation meetings, working
to bring about the implementation of successful legal decisions and judgments,
and other related legal work;
·
Working in liaison with partners, lawyers, experts
and other collaborating organisations to develop appropriate holistic advocacy
strategies to complement the litigation (including media, advocacy, campaigns
and similar methods);
·
In charge of developing, organising and running
appropriate paralegal and other legal empowerment and capacity building
training for minority and indigenous communities who are involved in, or who
wish to become involved, in litigation;
·
Manage budgets as delegated by the Head of Law, and
work with in-country partners to ensure projects are delivered on schedule,
within budget and to appropriate quality standards;;
·
Render support in the identification of new
opportunities for MRG’s legal work;
·
Assist with maintaining and developing relationships
with third party organisations interested in legal work, including NGOs,
donors, bar associations, law firms, barristers’ chambers and similar
organisations;
·
Research and draft logframes, programme proposals
and budgets for new legal work, draft reports to donors and other fundraising
related documents.
2.
Financial / Programme Management:
·
In charge of drafting reports on activities and
preparing financial and narrative reports to donors;
·
Managing elements of the project budgets;
·
Actively contributes to the evaluation of MRG
activities.
·
Undertake such other tasks as may reasonably be
requested by the Head of Law;
·
Ensure all Africa based staff are aware of legal
cases and liaise with staff working on capacity building, media, advocacy and
other work to maximise synergies and mutual internal sharing and learning;
·
Serve as a key liaison with the London office,
including but not limited to the Head of Law; attend staff and departmental
meetings;
·
Respect and work towards full implementation of
MRG’s gender and equal opportunities policies in all the work involved in this
post;
·
Some foreign travel may be required.
Qualifications, Skills and
Experience:
·
The Legal Officer should possess an undergraduate
and/or postgraduate qualification in law at degree level. Possession of a relevant
postgraduate qualification is desired
·
A minimum of two years’ experience of litigation in
international fora.
·
The applicant must have played a primary or major
role in drafting legal documents in at least 3 international human rights cases
·
Two years’ experience of litigating on relevant or
similar issues in at least one national legal system
·
A minimum of two years’ experience of advocacy or
lobbying or media or campaigning work
·
Two years’ experience of project management
(including managing budgets, project delivery, monitoring)
·
Past experience of designing and running legal
training, including personally facilitating training sessions.
·
Good working knowledge of the Africa region
including recent economic, political and social developments gained through
work experience, travel in the region or study
·
Comprehensive knowledge of international human
rights and minority rights law including economic and social rights, collective
and individual rights, standards relating to minority communities and
indigenous peoples
·
Working knowledge of international and some national
legal systems and legal fora
·
Working knowledge of anti-discrimination law in
theory and practice is considered an added advantage
·
Working knowledge of intergovernmental organisations
e.g. the UN, AU, and similar organisations.
·
Prior experience of working on minority or related
issues desired
·
Prior experience of working with members of minority
communities
·
Excellent communication skills including good
written and spoken English and French
·
Ability to draft legal documents (including third
party interventions and procedural documents).
·
Computer literate and knowledge of Microsoft Word,
spreadsheets, databases, the Internet and email packages
·
Good letter writing and numeracy skills
·
Ability to prioritise work, meet deadlines
·
Ability to stay calm under pressure and to assess
and absorb information quickly
·
Ability to maintain confidentiality
·
Be a good team player but also able to work at times
with minimal supervision
·
Possess excellent interpersonal skills
·
Capable of working in physically and
organisationally challenging environments
·
Ability to gain the confidence of members of
minority communities and legal professionals; good diplomacy skills with
diverse groups of people
·
Ability and willingness to travel as required
·
Exhibit strong commitment to using international law
as a means of advancing the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples
·
Commitment to the aims and objectives of MRG
·
Commitment to gender equity
·
Fluency in both English and French
·
Enthusiastic about working in a multicultural
environment and committed to equal opportunities
All suitably
qualified and interested candidates should send a completed application, download
here, and equal opportunities form, download
here, by email to recruitment@mrgmail.org
Deadline: 18th August 2015 (East Africa
Time, EAT)
