Legal Advisor, Ihl - Geneve, Schweiz - Médecins Sans Frontières Suisse

Médecins Sans Frontières Suisse

Geprüftes Unternehmen

Geneve, Schweiz

vor 1 Woche

Geschrieben von:

Lena Schneider

beBee Recruiter

Beschreibung

Field-based position with visits to the headquarters
:

Context:

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, healthcare exclusion and natural disasters.

MSF offers assistance to people based only on need and irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.

The Intersectional Legal Department (ILD) provides legal analysis, advice, support as well as risk and case management to field operations.

The ILD ensures that legal advice and legal support take into account and reconcile the specific legal context of MSF operations applicable in MSF countries of Operations and Headquarters with the necessary humanitarian and medical space linked to the specific legal nature of MSF as an international humanitarian and medical organization, as well as the specific governance of the MSF movement.

Mission:

Under the hierarchical supervision of the MSF Switzerland Direction of Operations and the functional supervision of ILD Humanitarian space/IHL Unit manager, the Legal Advisor provides direct legal support to operational teams regarding Humanitarian space/IHL and Counter Terrorism related issues.

Acting as a legal advisor, (s)he works in an integrated way with MSF Switzerland and other MSF Operational Center legal advisors and with the relevant legal Unit manager of the Intersectional Legal Department to ensure that MSF Switzerland receives coherent and best quality support.

This position involves travel to the field and occasionally to the various MSF sections.

Tasks and Responsibilities

Within the scope of his/her direct and delegated activities, the legal advisor is responsible for the identification and assessment of missions' overall legal risks and definition of strategies and mitigation measures around the area of protection of medical mission and counter terrorism concerns.

The position involves close collaboration with other lawyers in the Intersection Legal Department, but also with the various departments of the MSF-Switzerland, as well as with the teams in the field and the international working groups.

The flying legal advisor will be charged with the following responsibilities:

Under the supervision of the Humanitarian space/IHL Unit manager, (s)he develops expertise and supports missions on Counter Terrorism issues, International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law and International Justice:
Support field teams in the development of legal arguments aimed at defending the medical mission and MSF's humanitarian space, particularly providing support to field teams (via desks) regarding IHL issues during negotiations of MOU or special agreements/status, during the management of incidents and in the protection of victims of conflict.
As a flying resource, visit all relevant OCG missions in need of counter terrorism analysis and mitigation measures support.
Brief and debrief all relevant staff departing and coming back from IHL contexts.
Participate in the Unit 1 country approach follow up and management on IHL and counterterrorism including specific country analyses.
Manage legal issues of requests from commissions of inquiry or national or international legal proceedings regarding violations of IHL, or national or international criminal frameworks and ensuring that MSF's policy on participation in such proceedings is applied.
Train MSF personnel on relevant IHL issues and develop relevant tools.
Participate in and contribute to intersectional working groups of the legal department, particularly relating to IHL and national/international legal proceedings & counter terrorism issues.
Support MSF teams in the management of individual cases of violence against patients as well as against MSF personnel in the field and security incidents when applicable (such as arrest, kidnapping, murder, threats or cruel treatment) or any violation of the protected status of the medical mission in general.
Upon ad hoc request of Unit 1 manager and/or OCG DirOp/DG, contribute to potential incident crisis involving IHL violations, criminalization of staff or institution, staff arrest or security
Education_
Educational background in Law and International Humanitarian Law in particular (and/or strong work experience in IHL)
Experience and Skills_
Minimum 7 year's professional experience including at least 3 years as a lawyer or legal counsel.
Experience as an attorney is an asset
MSF operational experience in the field is a strong asset (at least in a humanitarian organisation)
Ability to translate an operational negotiation into legal language
IT user skills
Languages_
Fluent in English (written and spoken), French (spoken and written), Arabic/ Spanish an asset
Personal Abilities_
Rigor
Clarity
Ability to adapt to different legal systems
Ability to set priorities and organisational skills