Yemeni Research Adviser – “Reparations: An Accountability Pathway for Economic Social and Cultural Rights Abuses in Yemen.”

Global Rights Compliance (‘GRC’) is a niche organization made up of international lawyers and development experts focused on “democratizing” complex international human rights, and criminal and humanitarian law. Drawing on decades of experience in conflict-affected areas and transitional justice environments our “root and branch” philosophy combines innovative full-spectrum accountability strategies, building the capacity of States to implement international humanitarian and human rights standards, bespoke expertise in evidence gathering in conflict settings, and assisting communities to seek remedies for violations.

GRC is committed to enhancing compliance with international humanitarian law (‘IHL’), international criminal law (‘ICL’), and international human rights law (‘IHRL’) in fragile and conflict-affected states(‘FCAS’).

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The ongoing Yemen conflict has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Conflict continues to remain the main driver of hunger, with the World Food Programme (WFP) consistently warning of ‘multiple famines of biblical proportions.’ Both the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification System (IPC) analysis and WFP, estimate that 17 million people in Yemen are severely food insecure. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that 23,4 million Yemenis are in need of humanitarian assistance. Yet an understanding of starvation as a deliberate crime and associated violations of international humanitarian law and abuses of economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights remains lacking in Yemeni civil society. This inability of effective identification, documentation, and safe preservation of such information results in an inaccurate factual record of the conflict and its impact on civilians. Correctly identifying starvation-related violations and abuses may dispel misconceptions pertaining to the incidental nature of starvation as a by-product of armed conflict and rather places the focus on the role of deliberate human conduct intrinsic in these types of crimes.

The proposed project Reparations: An Accountability Pathway for Economic Social and Cultural rights abuses in Yemen is centered around two objectives: (i) capacity building tailored to three Yemeni partners and a wider community of Yemeni CSOs identified on inception on best practice on documentation using the Starvation Manual and Starvation Accountability App; safe open-source investigations; and documenting for reparations-oriented accountability; and (ii) translating the knowledge gained into a discreet investigation of starvation-related abuses.

The project’s objectives will be realized through capacity-building and innovative forensic investigations and legal accountability. From the design, implementation, and delivery of legal analytical products, the program and its implementation will be informed and guided by a strong survivor-informed and gender-sensitive approach, ensuring that programming inclusively elevates to the maximum extent possible Yemeni perspectives.

THE ROLE

The Yemeni Advisor will work with GRC’s Project team to ensure that all deliverables, outputs, and engagement with relevant project stakeholders and beneficiaries are tailored to the Yemeni context. They will review and provide input on all Project activities as well as support the GRC Legal team, engaging with relevant stakeholders. They will act as a liaison between GRC and our Yemeni CSO implementing partners.

DUTY STATION: The job will be remote with possible travel.
CONTRACT DURATION: 6-month contract with a possible extension.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Project Implementation: conduct research on and analysis on relevant developments in the Yemen human rights field; update the GRC Legal team on trends and issues of significance; keep up-to-date on activities and findings produced by international and other Yemen-based CSOs working on documentation and investigation of violations and abuses; support in the preparation, translation and dissemination of capacity building tools on accountability for starvation crimes, documentation and investigation; develop, prepare and facilitate the provision of online and offline sessions of legal mentorship and training by being the principal liaison between GRC and CSOs and organize together with the Legal team the structure and content of the sessions and the timetable; hold responsibility for the organization of the GRC team’s trips to Amman and liaise with local counterparts; liaise with CSO implementing partner on a continuous basis and understand their needs and interest; provide assistance and research on the project’s investigative outputs, including by providing local Yemeni contextual analysis in the form of insight and advice of samples of human rights documentation; assist in the preparation, research and analysis needed to finalize legal submissions to UN bodies and public-facing reports.

ATTRIBUTES AND EXPERIENCE

We are looking for a candidate:

• with 3-5 years of experience in the context of Yemeni human rights context, ideally with knowledge of international human rights, criminal and/or humanitarian law, and reparations;
• is proficient in English and Yemeni Arabic (additional language skills are an advantage);
• possesses a good understanding of the main issues relevant to the human rights situation in Yemen, preferably with a good view of emerging trends;
• who has practical experience working with a variety of stakeholders including civil society organizations in Yemen;
• able to work on their own initiative and with limited supervision, without requiring detailed guidance to get started but who can be given a desired outcome and figure out the action areas required to reach it;
• able to work as part of a multicultural team working towards a common goal and respectful of differentiating working approaches;
• who is flexible, versatile, and creative and able to work in a changeable & fast-moving environment, and capable of spontaneously support in project deliverables that are not in their remit where needed;
• with a proactive character, suggesting solutions and approaches, anticipating problems, and foreseeing potential challenges;
• able to think practically, to break down and pursue the elements required to operationalize a strategy;
• administratively competent; able to manage competing urgent demands.