Consultancy: Comprehensive litigation guide (Harare)

Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum

Sep. 08, 2023

Job Description

A reputable organization in Zimbabwe working on protection and promotion of human rights in Zimbabwe requires the services of an experienced human rights legal expert to assist in the development of a human rights litigation guide.

The value of human rights lawyering as a mechanism of supporting human rights protection, protection and accountability remains sustained. The organization seeks to build and share some of the practical legal strategies that may be used by human rights lawyers and create human rights litigation standards in Zimbabwe. (This will detail the political, legal and economic contexts in which human rights lawyers operate, and will also explore the root causes of the challenges.) The guide will be designed to be a resource for local human rights lawyers, human rights defenders and activists, capturing and sharing the experiences of human rights lawyers, human rights defenders and activists when representing victims of human rights violations, organized torture and violence or other forms of injustices.

Duties and Responsibilities

The guide will seek to bring out the voices and experiences of human rights lawyers and critically analyze strategies for protecting human rights and challenging injustice, both in traditional realms of legal advice and assistance, and the newer, less conventional delivery methods for promoting legal rights. Additionally, the guide will create standards for lawyers attempting to develop and or strengthen human rights litigation capacity.
The guide will also examine various structures that legal service providers have adopted and how these structures affect and intersect with human rights litigation. The guide will also focus on how politically sensitive cases may require creative lawyering to face the additional hurdles set by the government to thwart effective legal representation.

Human rights lawyers in Zimbabwe continue to face both familiar and new challenges, thus the guide will specifically seek to:

Promote access to justice, equality before the law and protection of human rights, accountability by highlighting the role of lawyers in transformative change;
Improve the capacity of individual lawyers, activists, and other human rights defenders through sharing practical technical skills; and
Build practical legal strategies necessary in human rights litigation.

The purpose of the consultancy is to produce a well written litigation guide that will assist human rights lawyers in increasing human rights litigation efficacy and impact-focusing on the operating context, processes, procedural and substantive criminal and civil law aspects.

Qualifications and Experience

A degree(s) in law at a reputable university.
A Masters of Law degree in Law, Human Rights Law, Social Sciences or any other equivalent Masters’ degree.
Extensive expertise, knowledge, experience, and demonstrable understanding of criminal procedure, human rights law and electoral litigation.
At least eight (8) years of experience in policy reform work.
A proven record of research, writing, teaching and producing high-quality paper work and workshops.
Availability and flexibility to travel across the country.
Fluency in written and spoken English.

Other

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit an application including the following:

A detailed CV, with at least three traceable references where similar services have been conducted; and a sample work, published paper, or links to previous work done on electoral litigation

Applications should be submitted to: consultancies@hrforum.co.zw, late applications will not be considered.

Deadline: 08 September 2023

Generate a Whatsapp Message