Human Rights in Emergencies Associate

Details

Mission and objectives

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is part of the United Nations Secretariat and leads the organization’s activities to promote and protect human rights around the world. It is headed by the figure of the High Commissioner, the United Nations Chief Human Rights Officer, who is appointed by the Secretary-General.
The OHCHR has presences in more than 60 countries, fulfilling its mandate (established by General Assembly resolution 48/141 of December 20, 1993) to support the promotion and protection of all universally low human rights. The Office’s mandate includes support for the work of international human rights mechanisms.
Based in Santiago, Chile, the OHCHR Regional Office for South America has the role of supporting States, civil society, intergovernmental organizations and the United Nations system in the promotion and protection of human rights in nine countries of the region : Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
To this end, the OHCHR Regional Office for South America has human rights advisers who work in the United Nations Resident Coordinator Offices in eight of the countries under its mandate.

Context

OHCHR is part of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and participates in humanitarian contexts in protection landscape. OHCHR established an emergency response team (ERT) in the South America Regional Office in 2022 to support protection and humanitarian response efforts with a human rights perspective in the region. Given multiple and complex emergencies in Brazil in recent years, the ERT has deployed as part of UN protection response efforts in support of key counterparts most recently further to requests from Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship and the Public Defender’s office in the emergency response in Rio Grande do Sul Floods. To further the work of OHCHR and support stakeholders not only in response efforts but lessons learned and preparedness plans, OHCHR is seeking to recruit a UN Volunteer Specialist to maintain a regular presence and dedicated work on protection in emergencies

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the Head of Emergency Response, the UN Volunteer will undertake the followings tasks:
• Participate and represent OHCHR in emergency response efforts under supervision and coordination of the ROSA OHCHR Emergency Response Team
• Work in close coordination and in support of national human rights and protection authorities and liaise with relevant humanitarian and protection entities
• Support preparedness and response efforts of national protection counterparts in response to emergencies, including building relations with disaster risk reduction counterparts and design of contingency plans
• Work with counterparts on design and implementation of protection and human rights assessment and follow-up
• Assist stakeholders in mapping of protection actors and development of 4W (Who is doing What, Where and When) sheets and in development of referral pathways during emergencies
• Support design of accountability and communication strategies with affected populations
• Inform International and national disaster impact assessment studies with information on affected populations and human rights and social dimensions of emergency
• Support the development of remote and in-person conferences and training on human rights, protection and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse PSEA in context of humanitarian action
• Support the planning, preparations, delivery and follow-up of After-Action Reviews, which are conducted following emergency response processes, and which are designed to improve the efficiency of protection responses of OHCHR and support those of protection partners.
• Support the development of partnerships with other humanitarian agencies