Job Title: Associate RSD Officer
Job ID: 7413
Location: Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan
APA Location: Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan
Salary Grade: P2
Hardship Level: C
Family Type Location: Family
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
The Associate RSD Officer is a member of the Refugee Status
Determination (RSD) team. Under the
direct supervision of the RSD Officer (RSD Supervisor), s/he is responsible for
conducting RSD interviews to determine eligibility for refugee status,
undertaking country of origin (COI) and other research related to the claim, as
required, and drafting RSD assessments, including for complex cases. The incumbent is also responsible for
carrying out supervisory responsibilities in the RSD procedure, as delegated by
the RSD Officer (RSD Supervisor), which may include responsibilities related to
the reception and registration of asylum seekers and refugees, file assignment
and scheduling of RSD interviews, coordination of the work of interpreters,
reviewing RSD assessments of members of the RSD team and providing legal and
procedural guidance and coaching, as required.
The Associate RSD Officer may liaise with Government authorities and
other partners about issues related to UNHCR's RSD procedure and relevant UNHCR
guidelines and standards related to RSD.
S/he may carry out training for Government authorities and other
partners on legal and procedural issues related to RSD and provide technical
advice to strengthen national asylum procedures.
FUNCTIONAL STATEMENT
Accountability
- UNHCR's RSD procedures are implemented in accordance with
relevant UNHCR standards and
policies, including policies related to age, gender, and
diversity mainstreaming (AGDM).
- Persons of concern have fair and transparent access to the
RSD procedures.
- Fraud in the RSD process is identified and appropriately
addressed.
Responsibility
- Stay abreast of legal, political, security and other
developments which impact on the protection environment, and in particular, on
protection delivery through RSD.
- Assist in the development of the RSD strategy of the
operation and in the annual planning exercise.
- Contribute to the development and enhancement of regional
and global RSD standards and policies.
- Assist in the supervision and oversight of RSD and RSD-related
activities to promote full compliance with written Standard Operating
Procedures (SOPs).
- Review and endorse RSD decisions and provide appropriate
feedback and guidance to RSD staff.
- Conduct RSD interviews and draft RSD Assessments in
accordance with applicable standards and guidelines.
- Maintain accurate and up-to date records and data related
to all work on individual cases.
- Provide counselling to asylum seekers and refugees.
- Assist in designing, implementing and revising
operation-specific SOPs for all aspects of the
RSD operation in
accordance with applicable standards and policies.
- Assist in preventing and identifying fraud in RSD through
oversight, advice and guidance to UNHCR staff, partners and persons of
concern.
- Assist in monitoring RSD trends and in compiling and
analysing RSD statistics related to RSD case processing to identify and respond
to developments or issues impacting on the efficiency or quality of RSD
decision-making, and to propose remedial measures.
- Conduct research on country of origin information (COI)
and legal issues related to RSD and assist in maintaining a local repository of
relevant information, guidelines and standards accessible to RSD staff in the
operation.
- Assist in developing and maintaining processes to ensure
that persons of concern, Government authorities and partners have accurate
information on the RSD procedures, including UNHCR standards, policy and
practice.
- Assist in initiatives to advocate with and support
Government authorities and legal partners to establish and strengthen fair and
efficient RSD procedures and RSD decision-making.
- Regularly assess training needs of UNHCR staff engaged in
RSD and related activities and provide on-going training and coaching on legal
and procedural RSD issues.
- Support the development and implementation of RSD training
initiatives for Government authorities and legal partners.
Authority
- Approve decisions to accelerate RSD processing for cases
meeting established criteria.
- Enforce compliance by UNHCR staff engaged in RSD and
related activities with UNHCR standards, policies and operation-specific SOPs
for all aspects of the RSD operation.
- Decide and endorse RSD decisions.
ESSENTIAL MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
REQUIRED.
- University Degree in Law, political science, international
relations or another related field.
- Minimum 4 years (2 years with advanced University degree)
of relevant professional job experience, preferably in the area of refugee
protection, human rights or international humanitarian law.
- Minimum 1 year of experience working directly with
procedures and principles related to RSD.
- Knowledge of International Refugee Law and Human Rights
Law and ability to apply the relevant legal principles.
- Strong research and analytical skills.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills.
(In offices where the working language is not English,
excellent knowledge of working language of duty station and working knowledge
of English.)
*** For National Officer positions, very good knowledge of
the local language and local institutions is essentials.
DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS & COMPETENCIES.
- Experience as a decision-maker in UNHCR or Government RSD
procedures is highly desirable.
- Experience in counselling asylum seekers or refugees.
- Experience in working with vulnerable or traumatized
individuals.
- Completion of UNHCR's RSD Learning Programme, COI Learning
Programme, Protection Learning Programme.
- Experience in supervising and in providing training or
coaching, guidance or advice to staff.
- Knowledge of another UN language.
Operational Context
The Kyrgyz
Republic has ratified the
1951 Convention relating to the status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol in
1996 and adopted national Refugee Law in 2002. It has a government body
responsible for refugee issues and established a procedure for determining
refugee status. However, the state is
currently providing limited access to asylum-seekers originating from certain
countries (CIS and PRC) in view of political considerations and security
concerns.
In addition to discriminatory access, national refugee
status determination procedures suffer under lack of substantial analysis of
the material elements of the claim, superficial credibility conclusions,
incorrect references to the UNHCR Handbook, limited or one-sided use of country
of origin information, lack of confidentiality and procedural safeguards,
leading to low quality decisions. Most government RSD body¿s caseworkers lack
experience in dealing with refugee cases. Combined with the influence of
political considerations in decision-making on refugee claims, and the frequent
staff rotation, this creates a range of deficiencies in national asylum
procedures.
The recognition rate for the limited number of
asylum-seekers who were still granted access to national RSD procedures in 2011
was as low as 2,5% (compared to 0% in
2010, 2% in 2009, 17% in 2007 and 28% in 2006,). Due to inadequate operation of the state RSD
system, by the end of 2011 around 70% of all refugees in the country lacked governmental protection and thus documentation as well as local
integration prospects, while the percentage of asylum-seekers who completely
relied on UNHCR protection/documentation equaled to 65%.
The main priorities for the Representation in Kyrgyzstan are
capacity building of the national asylum system, prevention of refoulement and
durable solutions for various categories of beneficiaries. UNHCR has to perform Mandate RSD for those
asylum-seekers who, due to regional sensitivities and the national security
concerns of the host country, are not afforded protection by the Government of
Kyrgyzstan and those who despite receiving access to the state RSD procedure,
were not provided adequate refugee status determination services and rejected
by the State.
There are 50 cases pending first instance UNHCR RSD
assessment as of 1 June 2012; in
addition, there is a backlog of 36 second instance (appeal) cases which have been pending the processing since 2009 due to
inadequate capacity of the office.
Given the complex and very sensitive operational environment
in which UNHCR is working in Kyrgyzstan and the need to further build the trust
of the local authorities in UNHCR¿s mandate with particular focus on RSD, the
incumbent of the post must have a solid RSD background, with both a strong
expertise on UNHCR RSD policies, practices and procedural standards, as well as
a demonstrated ability in
streamlining the existing
RSD procedures and the continuous
coaching of RSD staff, including that of
UNHCR.
Moreover, the highly sensitive cases this operation is
dealing with and existing high political considerations of the state require that the incumbent possesses a firm
understanding and high level of expertise of RSD principles and processes
concerning exclusion and cancellation and is able to review sensitive
rejection/cancellation decisions on exclusion grounds at the country level
before further referral through the review structure of the Regional Office,
Bureau and/or DIP.
In addition to the above, the incumbent should be adept at
liaising with state refugee authorities , and
at bringing the state asylum procedure in line with international norms
and standards. In this regard the incumbent would need well-developed
negotiation skills and a great amount of flexibility in achieving the
above-mentioned results.
S/he must also be able to write and oversee the drafting of
a wide range of reports and participate in annual strategy planning and
reporting activities related to the RSD
and protection functions of the operation. Excellent analytical and
interpersonal skills are essential.
Knowledge of the Russian or Farsi/Dari or Uzbek languages
would be an asset.
Operational Context
The Kyrgyz
Republic has ratified the
1951 Convention relating to the status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol in
1996 and adopted national Refugee Law in 2002. It has a government body
responsible for refugee issues and established a procedure for determining
refugee status. However, the state is
currently providing limited access to asylum-seekers originating from certain
countries (CIS and PRC) in view of political considerations and security
concerns.
In addition to discriminatory access, national refugee
status determination procedures suffer under lack of substantial analysis of
the material elements of the claim, superficial credibility conclusions,
incorrect references to the UNHCR Handbook, limited or one-sided use of country
of origin information, lack of confidentiality and procedural safeguards,
leading to low quality decisions. Most government RSD body¿s caseworkers lack
experience in dealing with refugee cases. Combined with the influence of
political considerations in decision-making on refugee claims, and the frequent
staff rotation, this creates a range of deficiencies in national asylum
procedures.
The recognition rate for the limited number of
asylum-seekers who were still granted access to national RSD procedures in 2011
was as low as 2,5% (compared to 0% in
2010, 2% in 2009, 17% in 2007 and 28% in 2006,). Due to inadequate operation of the state RSD
system, by the end of 2011 around 70% of all refugees in the country
lacked governmental protection and thus documentation as well as local
integration prospects, while the percentage of asylum-seekers who completely
relied on UNHCR protection/documentation equaled to 65%.
The main priorities for the Representation in Kyrgyzstan are
capacity building of the national asylum system, prevention of refoulement and
durable solutions for various categories of beneficiaries. UNHCR has to perform Mandate RSD for those
asylum-seekers who, due to regional sensitivities and the national security
concerns of the host country, are not afforded protection by the Government of
Kyrgyzstan and those who despite receiving access to the state RSD procedure,
were not provided adequate refugee status determination services and rejected
by the State.
There are 50 cases pending first instance UNHCR RSD
assessment as of 1 June 2012; in
addition, there is a backlog of 36 second instance (appeal) cases which have been pending the processing since 2009 due to
inadequate capacity of the office.
Given the complex and very sensitive operational environment
in which UNHCR is working in Kyrgyzstan and the need to further build the trust
of the local authorities in UNHCR¿s mandate with particular focus on RSD, the
incumbent of the post must have a solid RSD background, with both a strong
expertise on UNHCR RSD policies, practices and procedural standards, as well as
a demonstrated ability in streamlining the existing RSD procedures and the continuous coaching
of RSD staff, including that of UNHCR.
Moreover, the highly sensitive cases this operation is
dealing with and existing high political considerations of the state require that the incumbent possesses a firm
understanding and high level of expertise of RSD principles and processes
concerning exclusion and cancellation and is able to review sensitive
rejection/cancellation decisions on exclusion grounds at the country level
before further referral through the review structure of the Regional Office,
Bureau and/or DIP.
In addition to the above, the incumbent should be adept at
liaising with state refugee authorities , and
at bringing the state asylum procedure in line with international norms
and standards. In this regard the incumbent would need well-developed
negotiation skills and a great amount of flexibility in achieving the
above-mentioned results.
S/he must also be able to write and oversee the drafting of
a wide range of reports and participate in annual strategy planning and
reporting activities related to the RSD
and protection functions of the operation. Excellent analytical and
interpersonal skills are essential.
Knowledge of the Russian or Farsi/Dari or Uzbek languages
would be an asset.
Closing Date
Please note that the closing date for vacancies in Part I of
the September 2012 Compendium is Thursday 27 September 2012 (midnight Geneva time).
To apply for this position and others at UNHCR, click here
Social Plugin