Senior Legal Adviser, AU, Addis Ababa, NORDEM

NORCAP is the Norwegian Refugee Council’s expert deployment mechanism. NORCAP strengthens international and local partners’ capacity to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from crisis by deploying highly qualified women and men from its world leading standby rosters. The deployed experts work with UN agencies, humanitarian organizations, development actors and national stakeholders to save lives, build resilient communities, ensure peaceful transitions from conflict and promote sustainable governance.

NORDEM is NORCAP`s programme on human rights democracy and peace. We support international organisations and operations that work in the field of human rights, democratisation and peace with qualified personnel. In addition, we offer advice, support the transfer of experience and contribute to research. Our expertise covers such fields as good governance, democratic institutions, independence of the judiciary, judicial and legal reform, human rights, election observation and election assistance.

Since 2013 NORCAP has worked in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC), Peace and Security Department (PSD) to meet their growing demand for specialized civilian experts. NORCAP has supported peace and security initiatives specifically in the area of peace support operations, conflict prevention, and post-conflict reconstruction and development. Based on the AUC need of continued expertise support, NORCAP is expanding its support within and beyond PSD, to also include governance and development. NORCAP and the AUC work together in choosing deployments that will further the work of the AU towards Agenda 2063, which includes Human Rights and Humanitarian objectives.

Therefore, we are in search of someone with seasoned professional expertise in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law as a Senior Legal Adviser. The selected candidate will provide legal advice on matters
relating to International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL). The position has a duration of at least 24 months and is located in the Planning and Operations Unit, Peace Support Operations Division, in the African Union Commission (AUC), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Only applicants from the AU member states will be considered.

In addition to supporting the development of legal documents for Peace Support Operations (PSOs) and perform the following main duties, as Senior Legal Adviser, you will also:

1. Provide legal advice on compliance-related matters, specifically on IHRL and IHL to AUC and AU PSOs and provide specific support to the AU Compliance and Accountability Framework on issues of International and Humanitarian law as it relates to AU PSOs;

2. Provide support to AU mandated and authorized missions in the integration of IHL and IHRL standards into Mission start up documents and mission specific documents and supports the adherence including revising/aligning with IHRL and IHL existing frameworks on the use of force; arrest and detention and searches and seizures in AU PSOs;

3. Periodically review the MOUs between AU and T/PCCs to reflect elements of the enhanced AUCF to ensure continued compliance with IHL/IHRL obligations and accountability, including providing the modalities for holding offenders accountable, including through prosecution where appropriate, for violations of IHRL/IHL and misconduct by T/PCCs;

4. Finalize a Third-Party Claims Policy for compensations to victims and other third parties, including for ex gratia payments for lawful civilian casualties;

5. Revise the draft AU Protection of Civilians (POC) Guidelines to support the implementation of PoC mandates of AU PSOs;

6. Provide advice for selection and screening processes of AU PSO personnel to be deployed by T/PCCs and the AU for any record of criminal offences, and/or any violation of IHRL, IHL and previous records of misconduct in accordance with AU selection and screening policy and procedures of Pre-Deployment Verifications (PDVs), and ensure coordination with AU Human Resources Management Directorate (HRMD) accordingly;

7. Support the efforts of the Commission to ensure that decision-making organs endorse robust and harmonized policies and guidelines for the protection of civilians, prevention and response to IHRL/IHL violations and violations of applicable standards of Conduct and Discipline, including 3 Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA);

8. Revise/develop the AU policies on the use of force in AU PSOs, including Rules of Engagement (ROE), Directive on the Use of Force (DUF), the use of air assets and indirect fire, arrest and detention; searches and seizures; intelligence sharing – among others;

9. Support the establishment of a mechanisms to follow up on actions taken by the T/PCCs, including prosecutions, to hold to account their personnel repatriated from the mission;

10. Conducts substantive research and analysis of human rights issues/events and assesses their impact on the human rights situations in the countries where AU PSOs are deployed; and

11. Perform any other tasks as may be assigned by the direct supervisor.

In order to be considered for this role, you will also need to have:

• An advanced University degree (Master’s Degree or equivalent) in International Humanitarian Law or
• International Human Rights law, political science or public administration, or other related fields. At least 7 years of progressive working experience with at least 5 years of work experience in a similar position.
• Previous experience with African Union peace operations environment is highly desirable. Proficiency in one of the AU working languages (English, French, Arabic Portuguese and Spanish) is a must.
  • Knowledge of a second or all of the other working languages would be an added advantage.

If you are interested and meet the qualifications listed above, you are encouraged to apply based on the instructions below!

Application procedures and CV registration:

• Kindly submit your application in English and include your full name as written in your passport
  • Please enter the details of your work history in the appropriate fields of our application portal
    • ​​​​​​​Useful Tip: You can copy-paste the contents of your CV under Work History
• Please note that you are required to enter the geographical location for all your previous positions while registering your CV. There is no specific field for this information in our CV form, but you can use the “Company name” field for both company and location
• NRC reserves the right to conduct a full background check on shortlisted candidates
• Approved Health Certificate will be required prior to contract commencement and deployment
• All applicants will get feedback within four weeks after the closing of this advertisement.