United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Job Opportunities - Assistant Protection Officer
Organisation: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)Reports to: Associate Field OfficerDuty Station: Kiryandongo, UgandaThe Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. It also has a mandate to help stateless people. UNHCR has an additional mandate concerning issues of statelessness, as it is given a designated role under Article 11 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.Key Duties & Responsibilities:Stay abreast of political, social, economic and cultural developments that have an impact on the protection environment.The Protection Officer will assist in the consistent application and implementation of 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 persons of concern.Offer legal advice and guidance on protection issues to persons of concern; liaise with competent authorities to ensure the issuance of personal and other relevant documentation.Carry out eligibility and status determination for persons of concern in compliance with UNHCR procedural standards and international protection principles.Routinely promote and contribute to measures to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness.Actively 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.Provide inputs for the development of global / regional international protection policies and standards.Implement and monitor Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all protection/solutions activities.Manage individual protection cases including those on SGBV and child protection. Monitor, and intervene in cases of expulsion and other protection incidents.Assess needs for Promote and find durable solutions for the largest possible number of persons of concern through voluntary repatriation, local integration and where appropriate, resettlement.Assess resettlement needs and apply priorities for the resettlement of individuals and groups of refugees and other persons of concern.Contribute to the design, implementation and evaluation of protection related AGD based programming with implementing and operational partners.Contribute to and facilitate a programme of results-based advocacy with sectorial and/or cluster partners.Contribute to and facilitate effective information management through the provision of disaggregated data on populations of concern and their problems.Contribute to capacity-building initiatives for communities an individuals to assert their rights.Participate in initiatives to capacitate authorities, relevant institutions and NGOs to strengthen national protection related legislation and procedures.Perform other duties as instructed.Key Performance Indicators: The Assistant Protection Officer will mainly be responsible for the following:The protection of populations of concern is met through the application of International and National Law, relevant UN/UNHCR protection standards and IASC principles.Protection activities are guided by the protection strategy and respect the policy of UNHCR on age, gender and diversity (AGD).Active participation of persons of concern is assured through continuous assessment and evaluation using participatory, rights and community based approaches.Protection incidents are immediately identified and addressed to ensure that the needs of persons of concern in the country are assessed and analysed in a participatory manner using an Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective to form a firm basis for planning and as well as ensuring that Implementing Partner (IP) agreements are established in a timely manner, regularly monitored and reported on in compliance with established guidelines and procedures.Qualifications, Skills & Experience:The candidate should have a broad understanding and relevant field experience.Excellent IT skills including database management skills.The candidate must have ideally completed the Protection Learning Programme, Refugee Status Determination, Resettlement Learning Programme.All Interested candidates who meet the above criteria should submit their applications, under confidential cover, quoting the Post No addressed to:
The Senior Administrative/ Finance Officer,
UNHCR Representation in Uganda,
P.O. Box, 3813, Kampala, Uganda
Deadline: 20th March 2014
