National Justice Programme Officer

Justice Rapid Response (JRR) is an intergovernmental initiative that partners with international, national and civil society actors by providing them with prompt, impartial and professional expertise, tailored to each context, to investigate international crimes and serious human rights violations and to promote the rights and access to justice of victims and survivors. The JRR Secretariat team carries out JRR’s activities under the direction of the JRR Executive Director and it is based in Geneva, Switzerland with an office in New York. For further information, please visit our website http://www.justicerapidresponse.org

Justice Rapid Response is currently looking for a full-time Programme Officer to join our team in Geneva starting as soon as possible. The Programme Officer will be a member of Justice Rapid Response’s National Justice Programme (NJP) and will work under the supervision of the NJP Head of Programme.

NJP partners with States that seek to hold perpetrators of international crimes and serious human rights violations accountable or to address such crimes through transitional justice processes. In order to do so, NJP provides highly specialized expertise and tailors the support to every country and mechanism NJP engages with. With NJP’s support, countries maintain ownership of accountability, at international standards. The NJP Programme Officer is responsible for the implementation of the programme strategy and for contributing to reaching the programme objectives and targets as set out in JRR’s Plan of Work. The Programme Officer would cover JRR’s support in The Gambia and other country situations, in particular in Africa.

Under the supervision of the Head of Programme, the Programme Officer:

Project Management:

• Support the management and be responsible for the implementation of self-contained NJP projects. This includes the scoping, planning, implementation and reporting with a particular focus on the monitoring and evaluation of the impact/outcome of the activities
• Lead and coordinate, with the support of the Head of Programme and Director of Operations, the development of JRR’s integrated approach in relation to The Gambia under its strategic plan
• Identify potential new partners for the programme and, in consultation with the Head of Programme, reach out to them to find synergies and opportunities for future deployments and collaboration
• Under the supervision of the Head of Programme, develop and manage new and existing partnerships with states and state institutions or third-party organizations willing to investigate and prosecute or otherwise address international core crimes and serious human rights violations at the national level
• Contribute to identifying set of activities to be funded, and in consultation with the Head of Programme, develop concept notes and eventually full project proposal with the support of the fundraising and finance teams
• Support the Head of Programme in the management of NJP-related grants
• Identify and proactively report to the Head of Programme activities which could be used to illustrate the achievements of the programme. Collaborate with the Communications Officer to turn these into communication products (events, updates, blogs, etc.)
• Draft speaking point and briefing notes for the Head of Programme or other staff in preparation for events or meetings
• Represent JRR in events and workshops relevant to the NJP activities and participate in outreach/scoping missions when required and useful.

Deployment Management:

• Contribute to the assessment of new inquiries for expertise coming from national authorities (“requesting entities”). This will include researching contextual and security-related information
• Draft terms of reference for deployments in consultation with the requesting entity
• Identify JRR roster experts for deployments and prepare the documentation for the requesting Entity on experts’ profiles
• Coordinate and contribute to the implementation of the JRR security framework with the support of the Operations Officer and the Director of Operations
• Work with the requesting entity through the selection process and with the expert(s) and their employers on availability and release process
• Facilitate communications between all internal and external parties through the administrative and contracting phase as well as throughout the deployment
• Monitor and maintain records on the assigned inquiries and deployments including by updating the information in the roster management system as well as providing information for reporting and financial reporting on deployments
• Organize the debriefing of experts and ensure the implementation of recommendations made by experts and/or requesting entities
• Gather monitoring and evaluation data for each deployment, and draft narrative segments on Programme activities for interim and final narrative reports to donors
• Perform other tasks as may be required to ensure the continuation of NJP activities.

The Programme Officer will be the focal point for an assigned area of expertise on the roster. In this function, they will:

• Identify the needs of the JRR team in regards of JRR’s understanding of the thematic area, and subject to available capacity use this to implement initiatives designed at building the capacity of Justice Rapid Response in this field.
• Provide advice, when solicited, to programme staff in relation to the deployment of experts in that thematic area, including on expert search and TORs development.
• Keep appraised of evolutions in the thematic sector, as applied in justice processes, and position JRR within existing networks in the sector, as well as assess opportunities for JRR to support work in the thematic sector with its roster of experts.
• Assist the Recruitment and Certification Manager in assessing applications for new experts in the thematic category, conducting interviews, and once certified, assigning professions, expertise and proposing the skillsets for the expert.

• Masters in International Law, Transitional Justice, or International Relations or related field.
• Minimum 4 years of relevant professional experience in project management, project design (incl proposal writing), and monitoring and evaluation.
• Professional experience in the field of human rights, transitional justice and/or international law is essential. In addition, prior working experience on these issues in Africa is an asset.
• Legal background, including experience in criminal justice, is an asset.
• Fluency in written and oral English and French (interviews may be conducted in both English and French).
• Strong research, analytical and writing skills.
• Ability to work independently with limited supervision.
• Strong computer skills including working with databases.

• Creativity: Actively seeks to improve activities or services including by reaching out to key stakeholders and/or potential new partners and prospective experts.
• Flexibility: Comfortable working in highly flexible, decentralized environment in which autonomy, accountability and innovation are supported and valued
• Teamwork: Ability to work in collaboration with colleagues in view of reaching organizational goals; to proactively solicit input and value colleagues’ ideas and expertise; to be willing to learn from others; to place team agenda before personal agenda
• Planning & Organizing: Identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required. Allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work. Able to run all aspects of a project, including planning activities and managing budget.

For this position only European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and EU nationals, as well as holders of a valid work permit for Switzerland, can be considered. Non-EU/EFTA citizens who are eligible may apply for the Young professionals (trainees) (admin.ch) .

Please use the subject line “JRR NJP Programme Officer - *your name*”.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

• Deadline for applications: 10 November 2024
• Anticipated Starting date: January 2025
• Location: Geneva

Indicative gross annual salary for this position is 72’000 CHF, commensurate with relevant professionalexperience.