Overview
Serves as lead officer and coordinates the overall direction of the Sri Lanka accountability project, handling complex legal matters involving international law, human rights, and criminal law.
Key Responsibilities
- Serves as lead officer and coordinates the overall direction of the Sri Lanka accountability project, and independently handle a wide range of multi-discipline, highly complex, and often sensitive and/or conflicting legal matters involving issues relating to international law, including in relevant humanitarian, human rights and international criminal law; as well as in criminal law, both substantive and procedural aspects, public, private and administrative law, to include interpretation and application of instruments in that area of concentration.
- Coordinates and direct teams of other legal officers, guides and supervises the work of junior officers; organizing and prioritizing the workload and providing general coordination and supervision of assignments as regards the legal project.
- Makes various types of recommendations to senior officials with respect to actions to take; recommendations are usually accepted as proposed.
- Provides and supervises legal research, analysis and advice on diverse range of highly complex or novel substantive and procedural questions of law related to the project.
- Organizes and supervises the collection, consolidation, analysis and preservation of information and evidence in relation to gross violations of human rights or serious violations of international humanitarian law in Sri Lanka and the preparation of legal opinions, studies, briefs, reports, indictments and correspondence as well as performs and supervises extensive legal research and analysis on highly complex or novel legal issues/questions and prepares legal opinions, studies, briefs, reports, and correspondence.
- Advises on and supervises the review, and drafting of institutional and operational modalities, legal, and other legal documents; develops new legal modalities to meet unique needs/circumstances.
- Services diplomatic conferences, commissions, committees, task forces, expert groups and other bodies, including preparation of background materials, summaries of issues and views of delegations, meeting reports, etc.
- Represents, or supervises the representation of, the organization where applicable.
- Serves on various standing boards, committees, ad hoc working groups and task forces, as required; promotes the work of the United Nations and represents the organization at meetings, conferences, seminars, etc.
- Contributes to review and design of new, or new applications of, legal instruments, policy, guidelines, systems, etc.
- Supervises and participates in preparing legal publications of the unit.
Required Experience
A minimum of ten years of progressively responsible experience in criminal law, including legal analysis, research and writing is required. Experience in carrying out criminal investigations in an international court, tribunal or accountability mechanism, or in national jurisdictions is desirable. Experience in managing a team is desirable.
Qualifications
Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in international law is required. A first-level university degree in combination with qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
