TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR INTERNS
Internship: Human rights
Hiring Office:
UNFPA Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO)
Purpose of internship:
The purpose of the Internship programme is to provide learning opportunities to students and recent graduates from international human rights law or related fields to get exposure to the human rights issues under the UNFPA mandate.
Background: Guided by the 1994 Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the ICPD25 Nairobi Summit, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) partners with governments, civil society and other agencies to accomplish its mission, which aims to promote the rights of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity and supports countries in using data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty.
The UNFPA strategic plan 2022-2025 calls for urgent action to achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health, realise reproductive rights for all, and accelerate the implenetion of ICPD. Like previous plans, this plan focuses on three transformative results: a) enditng the unmet need for family planning; b) ending maternal deaths; c) ending gender -based violence and harmful practices, including female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage.
UNFPA’s Strategic Plan (SP) contributes directly to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals with the central pledge to ensure no one is left behind. To fulfill the SP, six accelerators have been identified, one being the integration of a human rights based approach.
Asia and the Pacific Regional Programme - part of the UNFPA overarching SP (2022-2025) in its output 3 includes an indicator to measure countries’ developed and implemented advocacy strategies with APRO support for the implementation of accepted recommendations from human rights mechanism, i.e. this encompasses the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
The Representatives of the UNFPA Asia and the Pacific country offices were requested by the Regional Director of UNFPA - APRO to identify in 2020 human rights focal points to further strengthen the work on human rights. The majority of the countries do have a focal point today.
The human rights focal points have drafted a Human Rights Strategic Work Plan (plan), aligned with the UNFPA SP 2022-2025. It is hoped this plan will be launched in April. The plan includes five pillars, of which one is strengthening the work and strategic use of human rights treaty bodies and UPR. To be able to strategically use the UPR a need has been identified to create a “roadmap” which helps countries know when they are due to report at the UPR and as such, when they should start preparing, as well as assist the countries in providing an overview when they are due to report at other global level, such as SDGs, treaty bodies (e.g. CEDAW, ICESCR and CRPD).
There is also a request to assist countries to pull out the accepted recommendations from the UPRs and possible other treaty bodies, to facilitate the strategic use of them with the government and other partners.
Scope of work:
(Description of services, activities, or outputs)
The intern would:
· Assist the human rights focal point, in collaboration with the focal points to finalize the human rights work plan so it can be launched.
· Collaborate with the human rights advisor to develop a roadmap for respective countries in the region when they are due to report at the global level mechanisms. If time permits, also document the recommendations the respective countries have received from the different mechanisms, starting with the UPR. The focus of the recommendations is those related to the ICPD and ICPD25.
· The intern will naturally also attend any other meetings of interest related to moving the human rights agenda forward, including meetings with national Human Rights Institutions, Civil Society and UN regional human rights coordination networks.
Overall aims: Assist the human rights advisor, in collaboration with the human rights focal points network, to institutionalize and raise the strategies in the work of human rights in the UNFPA to the realisation of the launch of the ARPO region’s human rights work plan and support the COs and strategic involvement with international human rights mechanisms, with a specific focus on UPR, and the treaty bodies CEDAW, CESCR,CRC and CRPD and interlinkage with global reviews including the SDGs and ICPD.
To realise the aim and objectives the intern should:
i) Assist in the process that remains to launch the human rights work plan for the Asia and the Pacific Region. This includes attending meetings with human rights focal points, and possible other actors, assisting in preparing agenda, contributing in meetings with e.g. note taking and follow-up on recommendations.
ii) In collaboration with the human rights advisor, support country offices to establish an accessible ‘roadmap’ that provides each country office with an overview of when they are due to report to the different global mechanisms such as UPR, SDG, CEDAW, CESCR, CRPD, CRC and ICPD.
iii) Support country offices, in collaboration with the human rights advisor, where requested, to create an accessible document/ table outlining the recommendation their respective country/ies have received from the different mechanisms i.e. UPR, SDG, CEDAW, CESCR, CRPD, CRC and ICPD. The ICDP recommendations will be used as the foundation to guide which recommendations to extract. This is used for programming and in strategic dialogue with government and partners.
Duration and working schedule:
3 months, from March – May 2022
Place where services are to be delivered:
Home-based, no travels are expected.
Delivery dates and how work will be delivered (e.g. electronic, hard copy etc.):
Duration of internship is from March to May 2022.
The work will be delivered electronically.
Intern will receive a monthly stipend during the period of internship at home-base rate and per UNDP’ most updated stipend rate.
Monitoring and progress control, including reporting requirements, periodicity format and deadline:
An initial virtual meeting will be held with the supervisor to discuss the expected outcomes and process of preparation.
Regular weekly updates will occur through communication by email and zoom as needed. Final virtual meetings will be held for the final report presentation.
Supervisory arrangements:
Intern would be expected to provide services under the overall guidance of the Regional Director and direct supervision of UNFPA’s Asia-Pacific Regional Human Rights Advisor.
Required expertise, qualifications and competencies, including language requirements:
Education:
Recently obtained or in the process of obtaining an advanced university degree in international human rights law or related field. In case of recently graduated with a university degree , if selected, the applicant must start the internship within one-year of graduation; This is to be in line with the policy.
Knowledge and Experience:
● Some experience in human rights and sexual and reproductive health and rights and/ or the right to health;
● Knowledge and understanding of human rights, including international human rights standards and reporting processes;
● Knowledge and basic understanding of ICDP, SDGs, UPR and treaty body reporting systems;
● Basic knowledge on how to communicate a lot of information in a simple and visual manner to actors with varied degrees of human rights knowledge and with limited time.
Languages:
● Fluency in oral and written English.
Other Desirable Skills:
● Prior experience in Asia and the Pacific
● Prior experience working with people left behind or the furthest left behind, e.g. persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities, indigenous populations.
● Experience of International Humanitarian Law and/ or practice.
Inputs / services to be provided by UNFPA or implementing partner (e.g support services, office space, equipment), if applicable:
The intern will use their own laptop.
Other relevant information or special conditions, if any:
Interns are not considered as having the status of a staff member. During the internship with UNFPA, interns are subject to the Regulations Governing the Status, Basic Rights, and Duties of Officials other than Secretariat Officials, and Experts on Mission (ST/SGB/2002/9).
How to apply:
Candidates should submit the following documents:
• P11
• CV
• Motivation letter for this internship
All the above documents must be sent by e-mail to vac-robangkok@unfpa.org.
The P11 is available on the UNFPA websites at https://www.unfpa.org/resources/p11-un-personal-history-form
Please quote the Vacancy number JID 2202 Internship: Human Rights. The dead line of application is 08 March 2022 (closing date)
UNFPA will only be able to respond to those applications in whom UNFPA has a further interest.
UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, teamwork, respect for diversity, integrity and a healthy balance of work and life. We are committed to maintaining our balances gender distribution and therefore encourage women to apply.
Notice: There is no application, processing or other fee at any stage of the application process. UNFPA does not solicit or screen for information in respect of HIV or AIDS and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.