Access to Justice Senior Technical Officer/Legal Specialist

Terre des hommes- Lausanne is seeking for a qualified Access to Justice Senior Technical Officer/Legal Specialist, member of the Technical Unit.

Under the management of the Program Coordinator and Programme Manager, the Access to Justice Technical Officer/Legal Specialist is responsible for the following:

Provision of Technical Orientations contributing to development of Strategy and Policy:

• Contribute to the technical development of the delegation’s intervention strategies with the coordination and management team;
• Fully understand the Access to Justice Programme of Tdh and its operational plan and logical framework in Lebanon and MENA Region;
• Refers to national and international policies and laws in child rights, child protection and access to justice for children;
• Fully understand the child protection framework and judicial system in Lebanon;
• Is responsible to technically advise the delegation on legal aspects regarding access to justice for children and youth and all the topics covered under Access to Justice Programme (Gender Justice, Religious Justice, Costumary Justice, Formal Justice);
• Support the access to justice program in the revision of its strategic orientations and implementation of activities at national level;

Technical Supervision of activities:

• According to the program strategic documents and work plans, directly technically support the field teams in the implementation and quality of all legal or judicial activities and all geographical locations;
• Supervise the correct use of reporting and monitoring tools by the field teams and partners;
• On a regular basis, exchange with the field staff and partners about the difficulties met and about the children involvement in the activities, thanks to field visits related to the activities implemented;
• Support the team in all other tasks as required by his/her manager and the needs of the Delegation;

Technical support on Legal and Juvenile Justice:

• Technically support the delegation in the creation of technical supportive materials, in all aspects of the program on legal/judicial aspects (guidelines, manuals, adapted monitoring tools, awareness materials, etc.);
• Ensure the legal monitoring of the policies and Judicial procedures in Lebanon and internationally, particularly on the Juvenile Justice sector;
• Participate / provision of inputs for the revision of laws / procedural documents related to the juvenile law in cooperation with other stakeholders in the country;
• In collaboration with Judicial stakeholders, ensure the identification of needs and gaps regarding the implementation of juvenile justice policies in Lebanon in order to feed the strategic orientation of the juvenile justice program;
• Iidentify and share information, research, best practice on the project and the tools relevant to his/her field with the project manager and the Delegation;
• Initiate discussions on the improvements to be made to the Juvenile Justice sector, children rights and access to justice for children and youth;

Supporting the Capacity Building, Advocacy and Awareness Raising Activities:

• Support the development of training curricula on Legal and Juvenile Justice field;
• Ensure that Tdh staff, Tdh Partners and the Juvenile Justice stakeholders implementing legal activities are well trained on Legal and Juvenile Justice principles and children rights;
• Identify the training needs of Tdh staff, Tdh Partners and the Juvenile Justice stakeholders and update them on a regular basis;
• Facilitate and undertake training, and training of trainers in the areas of expertise;
• Support the exchange of capacity building tools across the MENA region;
• In coordination with the other members of the Technical Unit team, develop a capacity building plan for Tdh staff, Tdh Partners and the Juvenile Justice stakeholders;
• Identify the needs of capacity building of the formal actors and customary actors;
• In coordination with the Juvenile Justice team, ensure the implementation of the capacity building plan;
• Develop, organize and facilitate training sessions or workshops on Access to Justice thematic (CP, children rights, restorative approach, alternative to detention, etc.);
• Develop, organize and animate awareness sessions and advocacy papers, messages or campaigns, in collaboration with other relevant agencies;
• Attend and facilitate workshops, regarding the other activities related to Juvenile Justice

Support on the Representation and Coordination:

• Under the supervision and in collaboration with the Programme Coordinator and Programme Manager, support Tdh’s representation before national entities (Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Social Affairs, and other national and local legal and Judicial stakeholders) and support in a smooth coordination and collaboration;
• Support on regular and structured coordination between legal stakeholders, formal and customary judicial actors, according to Tdh’s Strategy;
• Support in identification of new national and international partners;
• Attend coordination meeting that are held on a regular basis;
• Upon request and under the supervision of Programme Coordinator and Programme Manager, attend meetings with relevant authorities and stakeholders;
• Identify positive and innovative experiences related to his/her field and share them with his/her peers and managers;
• Able to present to stakeholders the project, the mission and Tdh's principles;
• In general, make sure that a positive and professional image of the Foundation is conveyed. In particular, ensure that the foundation's mandate, ethics, values and views are followed in relation to third party;
• Build up a network with other organizations which operate in the same field of activity;

Contribute on the situation analysis, research, innovation:

• Design and conduct situation analysis on relevant topics in collaboration with the Technical Unit and Programme Manager;
• Be responsible for the researches on Legal and Juvenile Justice field, including Mediation mechanism, alternative measures to detention, access to justice for Lebanese and non-Lebanese, cross-cutting child protection related legal issues such as child labor, child marriage, violence against children and engagement in violent extremisms;
• Support the coordination of Customary Justice Systems and formal judicial actors;
• Identify and develop partnerships with research Institutes, Research Department in Universities, etc.;
• Compile and analyze the good practices and lessons learned from the activities implemented;
• Initiate researches, design, conduct or provide technical support upon request to researches at national and regional level;

Reporting:

• Provide monthly and quarterly action plans and specific reports when required;
• Participate in the data analysis and reporting (internal and to donors, proposal writing, etc…);
• Share the reporting tools on a timely manner with the Programme Manager and Coordinator in order to regularly feed in the project Monitoring tools;
• Support the Programme Manager and Coordinator with the donor’s reporting and the development of analysis on the technical achievements;

Legal Support:

• Support the Delegation by providing legal support and advice on administrative and legal issues encountered by the delegation, in collaboration with the Country Representative, the Administrative and Finance Coordinator and the Human Resources department;
• Liaise with external lawyer if needed and required by the Country Representative;
• Make sure to respect strict confidentiality of information about activities, Tdh strategy, budget, staff, beneficiaries, etc.

Job Qualifications:

Education: Mandatory University Degree in Law;

Experience:

• At least 4 years’ experience in the field of Justice in Lebanon, preferably Juvenile Justice
• At least 2 years experiences in INGO, NGO at officer level with at least one experience on Child protection related experience.
• Experience in high level representation and coordination
• Experience in advocacy and awareness
• Experience in capacity building and training, experience in designing and animating workshops

Personal and technical skills:

• Excellent reporting and writing skills;
• Good communication and negotiation skills;
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team;
• Understanding and commitment to child’s rights and child protection issues;
• Flexible, willing to travel to different regions of Lebanon;
• Excellent organization skills;
• Good facilitation skills;
• Excellent communication skills;

• Excellent leadership skills are required;
• Cultural and Gender sensitive ;
• High level of flexibility and adaptability;
• Dynamic, pro-active;
• Mandatory fluent in English and Arabic;
• Good computer skills;

Location/ Travel: Beirut with visits to South, BML, Bekaa

Tdh Foundation, Lausanne has a zero tolerance to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of beneficiaries.  Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) is everyone’s responsibility and all staff are required to adhere to the Code of Conduct, that enshrines principles of PSEA, always (both during work hours and outside work hours).  Familiarization with, and adherence to, the Code of Conduct is an essential requirement of all staff.