Assistant Protection Officer at United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

• The Assistant Protection Officer reports to the Protection Officer or the Senior Protection Officer. Depending on the size and structure of the Office, the incumbent may have supervisory responsibility for protection staff including community-based protection, registration, resettlement and education.
• S/he provides functional protection guidance to information management and programme staff on all protection/legal matters and accountabilities.
• These include: statelessness (in line with the campaign to End Statelessness by 2024),  Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) commitments, age, gender, diversity (AGD) and accountability to affected populations (AAP) through community-based protection, Child protection, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention and response, gender equality, disability inclusion, youth empowerment, psycho-social support  and PSEA, registration, asylum/refugee status determination, resettlement, local integration, voluntary repatriation, human rights standards integration, national legislation, judicial engagement, predictable and decisive engagement in situations of internal displacement and engagement in wider mixed movement and climate change/disaster-related displacement responses.
• S/he supervises protection standards, operational procedures and practices in protection delivery in line with international standards.
• The Assistant Protection Officer is expected to coordinate quality, timely and effective protection responses to the needs of populations of concern (PoC), ensuring that operational responses in all sectors mainstream protection methodologies and integrate protection safeguards.
• The incumbent contributes to the design of a comprehensive protection strategy and represents the Organization externally on protection doctrine and policy as guided by the supervisor.
• S/he also ensures that PoC are meaningfully engaged in the decisions that affect them and support programme design and adaptations that are influenced by the concerns, priorities and capacities of them.
• To achieve this, the incumbent will need to build and maintain effective interfaces with communities of concern, authorities, protection and assistance partners as well as a broader network of stakeholders who can contribute to enhancing protection.
• All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description.
• They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks.
• In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR's core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties

• Stay abreast of political, social, economic and cultural developments that have an impact on the protection environment.
• Consistently apply 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 PoC.  
• Provide legal advice and guidance on protection issues to PoC; liaise with competent authorities to ensure the issuance of personal and other relevant documentation.
• Conduct eligibility and status determination for PoC in compliance with UNHCR procedural standards and international protection principles.
• Promote and contribute to measures to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness.
• 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 protection policies and standards within the AoR.
• Implement and monitor Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all protection/solutions activities.
• Manage individual protection cases including those on GBV and child protection. Monitor, and intervene in cases of refoulement, expulsion and other protection incidents.
• Recommend durable solutions for the largest possible number of PoC 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 PoC.
• 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.
• Assist capacity-building initiatives for communities and individuals to assert their rights.
• Participate in initiatives to capacitate authorities, relevant institutions and NGOs to strengthen national protection related legislation and procedures.
• Intervene with authorities on protection issues.
• Assist the supervisor in deciding priorities for reception, interviewing and counselling for groups or individuals.
• Assist the supervisor in enforcing compliance of staff and implementing partners with global protection policies and standards of professional integrity in the delivery of protection services.
• Enforce compliance with, and integrity of, all protection standard operating procedures.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications
Years of Experience / Degree Level:

• For P1/NOA 1 year relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or no experience with Graduate degree; or no experience with Doctorate degree

Field(s) of Education:

• Law, International Law, Political Sciences or other relevant field.
• (Field(s) of Education marked with an asterisk are essential)

Certificates and / or Licenses:

• Not specified
• (Certificates and Licenses marked with an asterisk are essential)

Relevant Job Experience:
Essential:

• Knowledge of International Refugee and Human Rights Law and ability to apply the relevant legal principles

Desirable:

• Completion of the Protection Learning Programme, RSDResettlement Learning Programme.

Functional Skills:

• PR-Protection-related guidelines, standards and indicators
• PR-Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD)
• MG-Project Management
• PR-Human Rights Doctrine/Standards
• PR-International Humanitarian Law
• PR-Assessment of IDPs Status, Rights, Obligation
• PR-Climate change and disaster related displacement
• CO-Drafting and Documentation
• PR-Gender Based Violence (GBV) Coordination
• (Functional Skills marked with an asterisk are essential)

Language Requirements:

• For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.
• For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.
• For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.

Position Competencies:

• Competencies as defined in Job Profile

Language Requirements:

• Please also note that English is essential for this Job Opening.
• Tiv language is desirable.

Eligible Applicants:

• This Job Opening is available to eligible UNHCR staff members and external applicants.

Procedures and Eligibility:

• Interested applicants should consult the Administrative Instruction on Recruitment and Assignment of Locally Recruited Staff (RALS). Applicants must be nationals of, and be locally recruited within the country of their employment.