Transitional Justice Lead – Ukraine

Transitional Justice Lead – Ukraine

For over 30 years, and through our work in more than 100 countries, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) has sought to strengthen legal institutions, support legal professionals, foster respect for human rights, and advance public understanding of the law and citizen rights. In collaboration with government agencies, the judiciary, lawyers, bar associations, legislatures, and civil society, we design programs that are responsive to local needs and that prioritize sustainable solutions to pressing rule of law challenges.

To learn more about our work in Ukraine, please visit https://www.americanbar.org/advocacy/rule_of_law/where_we_work/europe_eurasia/ukraine/

Job Summary

ABA ROLI is looking to hire a local Ukrainian expert to serve as the Transitional Justice Lead for the new five-year “Healing & Accountability through Human Rights Activity” funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The purpose of this new activity is to help Ukrainians achieve justice and address social divisions resulting from Russia’s full-scale invasion. The activity will support processes aimed at accountability for war crimes, foster dialogue on difficult questions related to post-conflict recovery, and begin healing and reconciliation using human-rights-based approaches, including transitional justice tools. This is a full-time position based in Kyiv, Ukraine, reporting to the Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP).

The Transitional Justice Lead will provide technical oversight to one of the program’s three objectives, specifically “Objective 1: Identifying and deploying transformative, intersectional approaches for reconciling divided groups.” The Lead will be responsible for developing and implementing programming aimed at addressing social divisions in Ukraine through innovative, locally-led initiatives which build trust and underscore common values. The Lead will manage interventions designed to foster dialogue at the national and local levels, offer psychosocial support for vulnerable groups, enhance equal access to information about justice options, ensure inclusivity and equal access to government services, monitor and support documentation of war crimes and human rights violations, and ensure multiple avenues for justice for victims, among others.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

• Ensuring adherence of Objective 1 program activities to USAID’s articulated program strategy.
• Manage the design and implementation of relevant programmatic activities under Objective 1, in collaboration with USAID, project leadership, partner organization and other key stakeholders. This includes but is not limited to:
  • Localized listening events across the country, public opinion surveys, expert discussions, focus groups and other initiatives to help identify key gaps in communication on reintegration, transitional justice (TJ), and human rights protection.
  • Developing key messaging on areas where information or understanding is lacking among certain groups.
  • Supporting investigative reporting on complex and controversial topics related to social cohesion, support local editorial offices and journalists in preparing materials, and deliver training for journalists on the basics of conflict-sensitive journalism.
  • Arranging monitoring missions to de-occupied territories in Ukraine, potentially developing a mechanism to address hate speech at the local level.
• Directly supervise a Transitional Justice Program Assistant.
• Coordinate closely with the DCOP and COP in the identification and development of small grant activities, and monitor and supervise implementation of the small grants’ activities implemented under Objective 1.
• Coordinate closely with the Field Finance and Administration Manager (FFAM) to ensure that activity development and implementation comply with USAID and ABA ROLI financial, procurement, administration and other regulatory and environmental requirements.
• Ensure that the program team is effectively using the Monitoring & Evaluation tools and processes for the program; design and implement tools to assess and report on the status and efficacy of Objective 1 initiatives.
• Contribute to quarterly and annual programmatic reports on the activities implemented under Objective 1.
• Perform other duties and activities as required by the COP and DCOP for successful implementation of the USAID program.

Required qualifications:

• Excellent oral and written English language communication skills required.
• Minimum of five (5) to seven (7) years of professional experience in international technical assistance project implementation and management in international or national non-governmental organizations, preferably with USG-funded programs, or small grants programs.
• Minimum of three (3) years professional experience in political transition, human rights advocacy, social cohesion, protection and support to vulnerable groups or with transitional justice programming.
• Relevant experience working with NGOs, grassroots organizations, and/or local communities.
• Master’s degree (or higher), or undergraduate degree with minimum of five years of demonstrated experience showing increased responsibility in the areas of law, political science, social sciences, psychology, or other relevant fields.
• Ability to work under difficult conditions while maintaining security awareness.