Application Deadline: April 29, 2014

Applications must be emailed to JPOCoordinator@state.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on the date indicated in order to be considered. Thank you.

How to Apply:

Please note that PRM-sponsored JPO positions are open to U.S. Citizens only.

Applicants must submit a completed United Nations Personal History form (UN P-11) via email to JPOCoordinator@state.gov by the deadline noted above. The UN P-11 form is available for download from the UNHCR website at http://www.unhcr.org/recruit/p11new.doc. PRM will accept the UN P-11 form without a signature. If desired, you may also submit a resume or curriculum vitae and letter of interest. Please specify the position for which you are applying in the Subject line of the email (i.e. Associate Protection Officer – Santo Domingo, DR). You must send a separate email and application for each position for which you are qualified and wish to be considered. For more information, please see the Frequently Asked Questions on the PRM website.

PRM Notes:

• For more information about UNHCR’s operations at this post, please visit the UNHCR website at www.unhcr.org.
• University education with a law degree – International Law, Human Rights Law, or Refugee Law preferred. Advanced degree is strongly preferred for participation in the PRM-sponsored JPO program.
• Two-four years of work experience in law, human rights, asylum and immigration, or refugee assistance. Experience with statelessness or nationality issues is a strong asset. Field experience in refugee work or humanitarian work desirable.

Working-level proficiency in English and Spanish required, and working-level proficiency in French is a strong asset. Strong working knowledge of a second UN language (French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, or Russian) in addition to English is highly desirable for participation in the PRM-sponsored JPO program.

• The JPO job description and related information attached are provided by UNHCR.
• JPO contracts are initially issued for one (1) year and then renewed. American JPOs are expected to serve a complete (2) two-year JPO term.

Associate Protection Officer (JPO)

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Job Description (JPO)

GENERAL INFORMATION:

Title: Associate Protection Officer (JPO)

Sector: Protection

Location: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

SUPERVISION:

Supervisor: Chief of Mission

Content and methodology of the supervision: The incumbent will work under the direct supervision of the Chief of Mission in the Dominican Republic, as well as under the overall strategic guidance and with the support of the Office of the Regional Representative for the USA and the Caribbean.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Under the direct supervision of the Chief of Mission, the incumbent shall fulfill the following duties and responsibilities:

1. Implementation of the national asylum procedure:

• Assist with implementation of UNHCR’s advocacy and training strategy to promote and facilitate the re-activation of the national asylum procedure in the Dominican Republic. This would include assisting and accompanying Immigration Officers to interview asylum seekers, document their claims, and present dossiers for decision. It would also include assisting with the training of Government officials responsible for deciding refugee claims.
• Undertake monitoring visits to the migration detention facility to identify asylum seekers, provide counseling, and facilitate access to the national asylum procedure.
• Undertake field visits to the Dominican Republic-Haiti border zone to monitor the mixed migratory environment, build UNHCR’s network of partners in the border zone, and report on changes in migratory practices that impact upon Haitians in need of protection

2. Capacity building among NGO partners:

• Work with three NGO partners to strengthen their capacity to identify gaps in material assistance and legal aid, perform participatory assessments, and improve refugee assistance and local integration projects.
• Work with an NGO partner to identify refugees in need of resettlement or voluntary repatriation, and facilitate resettlement and voluntary repatriation processes.

3. Coordination and support:

• Assist the Chief of Mission in the critical role of coordinating with the Government of the Dominican Republic, as well as partners such as UNICEF, WHO, IOM, etc., all aspects of the refugee programme including carrying out needs assessments, ensuring access to basic services, repatriation, etc.
• Support in all aspects of the development of a comprehensive UNHCR strategy on the issue of prevention and reduction of statelessness in the Dominican Republic, in relation to Dominican-born populations of Haitian descent.
• Support various aspects of UNHCR’s response to the protection and assistance needs of earthquake-displaced populations from Haiti in the Dominican Republic, including identifying protection needs and assistance gaps among earthquake-displaced populations in shelters and in host families, with a focus on unaccompanied children, medical evacuees and amputees, elderly or disabled, women at risk, and other particularly vulnerable groups.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

Qualifications: University education with a law degree - International Law, Human Rights Law, and Refugee Law preferred. Post graduate qualifications in law will be an added advantage. University degree (LL.B.) with 4 years of relevant job experience or Advanced University degree (LL.M. – or JD) and 2 years of relevant job experience.

Experience: Two-four years of work experience in law, human rights, asylum and immigration, or refugee assistance. Experience with statelessness or nationality issues is a strong asset.

Skills: Strong inter-personal communication and negotiation skills; ability to effectively articulate and communicate with tact, complex and sensitive issues to a wide range of audiences, including to governments who may be unreceptive to UNHCR and/or to populations of UNHCR concern. Flexibility and adaptability, including the ability to establish and maintain harmonious working relations with people of different backgrounds. Strong analytical and drafting skills. Working-level proficiency in English and Spanish required, and working-level proficiency in French is a strong asset. A second UN language is an added advantage.

Relevant UNHCR Functional Competencies:

• PT06 Protecting Refugees and Other Persons of Concern to UNHCR at field level (including stateless populations)
• PT05 Promoting Refugee Law/Protection Principles (including promotion of the prevention and reduction of statelessness)
• PT03 Establishing Eligibility for Refugee Status
• DS02 Facilitating the Local Integration Process
• DS03 Facilitating the Resettlement Process

Training components:

• Although the incumbent will principally be performing protection and durable solutions functions, due to the small size of the UNHCR team in the Dominican Republic, he/she will have ample opportunity to learn about the UNHCR program cycle and work with NGO partners to design and implement projects in material assistance, legal aid, and income-generation/livelihoods support.
• Specific skills and knowledge will be acquired in Refugee Status Determination (RSD), registration practices, durable solutions including resettlement processing, and participatory training techniques.
• Training and coaching in RSD and resettlement processing will be provided by Protection and Resettlement staff based in Washington as required, further enhancing the learning process.

Learning elements:

• This position provides a unique opportunity for the incumbent to be directly involved in the development and implementation of a new UNHCR operational strategy to address serious protection gaps both for refugees and stateless populations within a highly complex political and migratory environment.
• It will also provide the incumbent with exposure to the UN humanitarian relief response to the January 2010 earthquake through UNHCR’s lead of the Protection Cluster in the Dominican Republic. The incumbent will therefore develop sound knowledge and understanding of the legal and operational frameworks in which UNHCR works in refugee operations, statelessness operations, IDP operations, as well as in UNHCR’s exceptional mobilization in natural disaster scenarios as part of the wider UN coordination system.
• The incumbent will have the opportunity to develop knowledge in a wide range of thematic areas, including migration-asylum nexus, trafficking-asylum nexus, detention and border issues, and maritime issues, and child protection (Best Interest Determination) issues. Because the Dominican Republic also receives asylum seekers from a diversity of countries (not limited to Haiti), the incumbent will have the opportunity to be exposed to a diversity of nationalities of asylum seekers arriving in maritime, land and air movements throughout the Caribbean region.
• The incumbent will have the opportunity to engage with a wide array of international agency operational partners, including but not limited to UNICEF, UNDP, IOM, the Red Cross movement, and field programs of the OAS.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

UNHCR’s Regional Office for USA and the Caribbean is re-establishing a field presence in the Dominican Republic starting in the second quarter of 2010, through the opening of an Office of the Chief of Mission (OCM) in Santo Domingo.

Whether fleeing persecution, mass violation of human rights, generalized violence, extreme poverty, or natural disaster, Dominican Republic has always been susceptible to mass influx of Haitian refugees, migrants, and the natural-disaster displaced. Due to a shared land border, the Dominican Republic has historically received Haitian refugee flows during periodic political crises in Haiti. Haiti is the second largest refugee producing country in the Americas (after Colombia), and the Dominican Republic is the principal asylum country in the Caribbean for Haitian refugees. Tens of thousands of Haitian refugees have sought safe haven in the Dominican Republic over the last three decades. The political, security and human rights situation in Haiti remains highly precarious and the underlying causes of political conflict remain unresolved despite a sustained UN military and civilian peacekeeping presence.

With the January, 12^th 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti’s capital, a new humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Haiti that has provoked the displacement of thousands of earthquake victims into the Dominican Republic, either as part of an official medical evacuation program or spontaneously in search of protection and survival. At the request of the UN Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator in the Dominican Republic, UNHCR is currently leading the Protection Cluster in the Dominican Republic, liaising with OHCHR and UNHCR emergency teams in Haiti who are co-leading the Protection Cluster under the umbrella of wider UN relief effort inside Haiti.

In addition to refugees, asylum seekers, and now earthquake victims, the Dominican Republic also hosts over 1 million Haitian migrant workers and their descendants, most fleeing extreme levels of poverty in Haiti. The border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic is also known to be the site of trans-national trafficking of thousands of Haitian women and children each year to work in the sex industry or in domestic servitude. The border is extremely porous and characterized by frequent human rights violations by military and border authorities. Over several decades, the Dominican authorities have periodically conducted roundups and indiscriminate mass expulsions of Haitian migrants. The issue of Haitian migration in the Dominican Republic is extremely sensitive, both at the national political level as well as at the local community level. There is pervasive discrimination and xenophobic violence against persons of Haitian descent, which in the most extreme cases include public lynchings and burning of homes occupied by persons of Haitian origin. The protection of refugees, asylum seekers, and now earthquake victims from Haiti within such a complex and politicized migratory environment is therefore very challenging.

In addition to being the major country of destination for Haitian refugees, the Dominican Republic also has a population of upwards of 250,000 (a quarter million) Dominican-born persons of Haitian descent (“Dominico-Haitians”) who are to varying degrees at risk of statelessness. The Dominican Government has historically deprived children of Haitian descent born in Dominican territory of the right to nationality despite a jus solis constitutional framework. Since 2007, the Government has implemented new policies which strip citizenship documents of persons of Haitian descent who had already received them, creating new stateless people. A new Constitutional promulgated in January 2010 has changed the nationality framework, creating a constitutional order to deny citizenship to children born on the territory to “non-resident migrants”; there is a common expectation that the new nationality provisions will be applied retroactively, providing a platform for the Government to expand and more systematically apply existing policies. This will further aggravate the risks of statelessness for certain populations.

It is within the above-mentioned context in which the incumbent of the Associate Protection Officer (JPO) position will work, thereby gaining field experience, exposure and knowledge to issues of refugee protection, statelessness, and protection of natural disaster-displaced populations, within a highly complex migratory environment.

Living conditions and staff security in the Dominican Republic, including all field locations (visited during periodic missions) pose no particular hardships or risks. There is no security phase in the Dominican Republic. However, special precautions are required in relation to travel across the border and inside Haiti due to UN security phases.