Legal Consultant

I. Background

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is implementing a 20-month regional project, funded by the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP). Project target countries are those impacted by the ongoing crises in Syria and Iraq, including Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

This project provides context specific interventions to ensure anti-trafficking measures are fully integrated into the Levant regional crisis response. Recognizing that trafficking in persons has been an overlooked protection concern in times of crisis, to reconcile this gap, the project specifically works to improve the protection space for trafficked and at-risk populations impacted by these ongoing regional crises.

At the same time, the project is working to build the capacity of key responders, and specifically governmental, civil society, humanitarian and emergency responders, through targeted trainings, the availability of new, crisis-specific intervention tools, regional exchange of best practices and innovation, and the availability of new data and information to ensure that interventions remain evidence-based. Finally, the project is working to prevent crisis affected populations from resorting to negative coping strategies and becoming at-risk to trafficking in persons through regional and grassroots awareness raising.

With the aim of improving the identification of victims of trafficking and their access to specialized support, the project is focusing on building a stronger partnership to effectively respond to trafficking in persons and provide essential services to victims of trafficking in persons, as a consequence of the Levant crisis in interventions countries.

Given that the establishment of National Referral Mechanism (NRMs), is a pre-requisite for counter-trafficking responses and for devising a Transnational Referral Mechanism (TRM) in the Levant region; IOM in Lebanon is promoting a unified and protective response through the development of national Standard Operating Procedures for the identification and referral of victims of trafficking for assistance. To this end, IOM will engage a legal consultant to support the development of these SOPs as well as accompanying annexes. These SOPs will be made available to key decision makers in Lebanon for further adoption.

II. Objective and Scope of Work

Reporting directly to the ATIP-Levant Program Officer and under the direct supervision of the IOM Representative in Lebanon, the legal consultant will be responsible for drafting national standard operating procedures to identify and refer victim of trafficking for assistance in Lebanon . The consultant will also draft the terms of reference for the counter-trafficking task force who can be in charge of the implementation of the national SOPs. The legal consultant will also produce a series of draft circulars to improve the protection measures taken by key government entities to identify and assist victims of trafficking. These documents will be submitted to key ministries and government entities for further adoption.  

The selected consultant will have the following specific assignment:

1: Development of national SOPs outlines

1. Conduct preliminary desk review to inform the development of SOPs proposal including minutes of meeting of previous discussions conducted within the framework of the counter-trafficking working group facilitated by IOM and other stakeholders in Lebanon.
2. Develop the outlines of the national SOPs.

2: Development of the first draft of the national SOPs

1. Compile and analyze information received during the different counter-trafficking working group facilitated by IOM to discuss standard operating procedures for the identification and referral of victims of trafficking for assistance.
2. Review Lebanon’s international and regional commitments with regard conventions and protocols that address trafficking in persons including UN Convention on the rights of the child (UNCRC), and
   the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children -Palermo protocol in addition to Arab Protocol to Combat Trafficking in Persons.
3. Perform horizontal review of relevant laws and develop circulars to improve the protection measures taken by government entities to identify and assist victims of trafficking. This will include a set of operational and concrete measures to facilitate the cooperation within and among different actors involved in the counter-trafficking response in Lebanon.
4. Develop a flow chart for clear referral path for victims of trafficking and those who are at risk in Lebanon.
5. Develop terms of reference (TORs) for a counter-trafficking task force to enforce the implementation of the national SOPs and discuss it with the counter-trafficking working group, facilitated by IOM.
6. Support the implementation of national consultation in close coordination with the Levant Program Officer including presenting the outlines of the draft SOPs.
7. Review and finalization of existing supporting tools developed within the framework of the ATIP Levant project, to be aligned with the SOPs and roles of all actors, including rapid screening form, referral tools to be used at the identification level of the referral continuum.

3: Review and finalize the SOPs to identify and refer victim of trafficking for assistance in Lebanon as well as supporting tools for implementation

1. Submit the first draft national SOPs which should include rapid screening form; referral form.
2. Following the first internal review, submit a second version of the SOPs.
3. Review the second draft SOPs based upon the comments of relevant partners and produce the final version of the draft SOPs.
4. Review and finalize the terms of reference (TORs) for the counter-trafficking task force as well as circulars following feedback from the counter-trafficking working group and key stakeholders.

III. Duration of the assignment

The selected candidate is estimated to start on 15 April 2019 and to finalize the work 15 August 2019.