Legal Consultant - Child Protection - Bekaa

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933, the IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and 22 cities in the United States, the IRC restores safety, dignity, and hope to millions of vulnerable individuals uprooted by conflict or disaster. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

Under the supervision of the Child Protection Access to Justice Manager, the Legal Counselor will coordinate closely with the mandated NGOs from the Ministry of Justice (Himaya and UPEL) and with IRC to identify legal needs for the children under their justice files, to provide them and their caregivers with legal counseling and assistance including representation in relevant administrative bodies and/or courts. The Legal Counselor will conduct direct legal follow-up for the children who are in conflict with the law and/or protection that will be referred to from Hemaya and assigned by IRC. The Legal Counselor will conduct field visits according to shared schedules to provide consistent follow-up with beneficiaries, if and as needed. The Legal Counselor will work with community leaders to support advocacy at the community level and engage in mediation and negotiation as needed.

The below sections describe the major responsibilities of the service provider while a clear individual annex will describe the specific expected deliverables (monthly and yearly) for the completion of service.

Deliverables:

1. Legal services:

• Provide 30 children and their families through self-identification and /or received as referral from Himaya and IRC in the North with child-sensitive and child-centered legal counseling.
• Represent 20 children and their families in different courts primarily juveniles and others per year, also they should represent & and accompany children during the investigation.
• Conduct regular mediation with private stakeholders and authorities.
• Outreach to children in need for legal support through close coordination with mandated agencies, police officers, judges etc.
• Closely coordinate with the legal counselor at IRC, the Team leader at Himaya, and relevant staff to ensure children are adequately supported through the judicial process. 
• Conduct field visits only to detention centers and palaces of justice after getting the consent of the family and with the presence of an adult or a social representative if needed, this should be also in coordination with the UPEL / Himaya team leader and the IRC project manager.
• Consistently follow up on cases referred by the IRC CP program, Himaya, or other actors.
• Follow-up meetings be held between the lawyer, Himaya and IRC case workers, to update them about the progress of the case.
• Immediate coordination is to be conducted between the case workers and the lawyer in case of emergency.

2. Legal Counseling:

• Develop and adapt information sessions for children on relevant legal services and processes.
• Delivering information sessions to children and adults is at risk of being in contact with the law.
• Ensuring communication regarding legal services and relevant processes is child friendly.

3. Reporting:

• Ensure relevant documentation is updated on each case as per monitoring and evaluation requirements every week and submitted for reporting.
• Update and closely coordinate with the Child protection case managers and legal counselor, Himaya and caseworkers every week regarding the cases.
• Provide legal report according to set templates to IRC – Access to Justice manager on a Bi-weekly basis.
• Share with IRC all the legal documents submitted or prepared during the work on the Juvenile file.

Requirements:

• Extended professional experience in the field of child protection and violence against children
• domestic violence/gender-based violence/violence against women and girls.
• Professional experience in project management.
• Strong understanding of social (and child) protection and justice systems and social norms, with a particular focus on violence;
• Registered in the Bar Association.