Consultant for an evaluation on baseline study on the state of the legal protection of Human Rights Defenders in the Regions of the African Great Lakes and Eastern Africa

Position: Consultant for an evaluation on baseline study on the state of the legal protection of Human Rights Defenders in the Regions of the African Great Lakes and Eastern Africa

Status: Consultant

Duration of consultancy: around 25 working days

Starting Date: February – beginning of March 2013

Due to the urgency of this position, applications will be short listed on a regular basis and we may offer this post ASAP.

I. General overview: the Organisation

1. Contracting authorities

Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF), Rue de Namur 72, 1000 Brussels – Belgium
ASF is an independent international non-governmental organization founded in Belgium in 1992, with the aim of contributing to the creation of equitable societies in which the law and its institutions serve the most vulnerable people. ASF has been working in the regions of the African Great Lakes and East Africa since its creation in 1992 on various projects to enhance access to justice for the vulnerable, projects on pre-trial detention, as well as projects for the training and coaching of lawyers, and numerous interventions in certain strategic litigations.

To this mean, ASF has permanent missions in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Nepal and Tunisia, and implements projects in Israel / Palestine, and Chad and Tanzania. ASF works closely with lawyers and civil society to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of its projects.

East Africa Law Society (EALS), 64, Haile Selassie Road, Arusha – Tanzania

EALS is the premier regional Bar Association in East Africa. It is a dual membership organization, bringing together more than ten thousand individual lawyer-members from the region, as well as six national Bar Associations (Law Society of Kenya, Tanganyika Law Society, Zanzibar Law Society, Uganda Law Society, Burundi Bar Association). It is the largest organized Professional Civil Society membership organization in the region, with a strong mandate and interest in the professional development of its members.

2. Purpose of the evaluation

The purpose of the evaluation is to set up an assessment of the situation of human right defenders (HRD), the state of their legal protection and eventual gaps in their protection (sectorial or geographical) in the perspective of the project “Support and protection of lawyers and other human rights defenders in the regions of the African Great Lake and Eastern Africa” implemented by ASF and the EALS. More specifically, the evaluation should focus on the relevance of the creation of a Protection Trust Fund (PTF) under the auspices of the EALS.

3. Overview of the project

Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) and the East Africa Law Society are engaged in a multi-annual project financed by the European Union contributing to the support and protection of lawyers and other HRDs in the regions of the African Great Lakes and East Africa. All activities are organized within the framework of a regional strategy, which aims to provide both an emergency response in the short-term and structural lasting solutions in the long-term.

4. Expected result

- Realize a baseline study (which allows evaluating the effect and the impact of the project at the end of the intervention) on the situation of HRDs and the state of their legal protection (identification of needs, eventual gaps in the response and priorities) based on a field survey in 2 to 4 intervention countries; this result includes the development of evaluation methodologies to be validated by ASF and EALS as well as the identification of key HRD sector actor
- Deliver an assessment report on the situation on HRDs in the region, the state of their legal protection and the need for and relevance of the creation of a regional mechanisms such as a PTF
- Provide recommendations on project perspectives in order to improve operational effectiveness, the relevance and modalities of planned activities and the implementation of new and innovative activities

5. Deliverable

- A proposition of methodology to carry out the evaluation
- An assessment report including a baseline, an in depth analysis of HRD protection challenges, gaps, opportunities and perspectives and relevant recommendations
- A list of people interviewed, material used and bibliography

II. HRD protection project

1. Background

Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) – and lawyers among them – are ordinary people taking extraordinary risks associated with their work and commitment. Due to the nature of their activities, these HRDs are often confronted with various types of people and establishments attempting to limit their capacities to defend and/or promote human rights.
The democratisation processes in Eastern Africa and the African Great Lake Region (hereinafter “the regions”) will be accomplished only if HRDs are provided with unrestricted working environments. Protecting HRDs is a matter that impacts the regions both globally and locally. With the regionalisation of human rights legal frameworks, there is an increasing need to tackle the protection challenges through a global and inclusive approach.

2. Geographical scope

The countries of implementation are the following: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

3. Objectives

General objectives: To contribute to the protection of human rights in the regions of the African Great Lakes and Eastern Africa
Specific Objectives: To ensure that lawyers and other HRDs in the regions receive stronger protection

4. Actors

Target groups:
- Lawyers, either because they themselves actively defend human rights, or because they provide legal assistance to HRDs
- HRDs
- National bar associations of Burundi, DRC, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda
- National or regional organisations which promote and defend human rights and are involved in the protection of HRDs
Final Beneficiaries:
- the vulnerable populations, individuals and groups deprived of their fundamental rights
- members of the legal profession

5. Strategy and results

In the short-term, legal and direct assistance is provided to HRDs who are or feel threaten due to direct physical threats or attacks, judicial or administrative harassment or as a consequence of the criminalization of their human rights activities.

In parallel, a long term strategy is implemented through 3 complementary actions in order to set the conditions for establishing sustainable regional protection mechanisms.

While the overall strategy is to gradually strengthen the role of lawyers as agents for social changes -through their active involvement in protecting HDRs against the violation of their fundamental rights and the restriction of their working environment-, the project aims at supporting a pool of lawyers involved in HRDs cases and strengthening their capacities to efficiently frame HRDs cases as human rights violation and develop legal strategies for protecting HRDs (through mediation, negotiation, litigation, trial observation, Amicus Curiae interventions, etc.).

Alongside the legal and judicial response through case work, policy and legislative influence strategies are implemented with various regional and national actors in order to create or strengthen protection legal frameworks.

Finally, the core components of the project is to create a regional dynamic among HRDs, lawyers, protection organisations, networks and institutions, donors and other stakeholders through a protection fund designed to provide long-term and global responses to HRD protection issues.

III. Evaluation expected results and methodology

1. Expected results

- Realize a baseline study (which allows evaluating the effect and the impact of the project at the end of the intervention) on the situation of HRDs and the state of their legal protection (identification of needs, eventual gaps in the response and priorities) based on a field survey in 2 to 4 intervention countries; this result includes the development of evaluation methodologies to be validated by ASF and EALS as well as the identification of key HRD sector actor
- Deliver an assessment report on the situation on HRDs in the region, the state of their legal protection and the need for and relevance of the creation of a regional mechanisms such as a PTF
- Provide recommendations on project perspectives in order to improve operational effectiveness, the relevance and modalities of planned activities and the implementation of new and innovative activities

2. Evaluation questions sample

The evaluator will address the following questions (the list is not exhaustive and shall be further discussed):
- What are the obstacles to HRD protection (with a focus on the legal sector)?
- What are the differences of HRD situation among countries of intervention?
- What are the perception of HRD protection for key actors and HRD?
- Are there any existing networks for protection and support of HRDs and what support are these networks offering to HRDs?
- What is the level of use of national, regional and international protection mechanisms?
- Would the creation of a regional mechanism such as a PTF contribute to increase the protection response and fill gaps?
- What’s next: recommendation on planned activities and suggest new activities?
- How adjust and improve the intervention strategy?

3. Elements of methodology

In order to reach the assessment objectives, the consultant will proceed to:
- A review of the relevant literature and project documents
- A review of relevant national, regional and international legal framework
- Interviews/group sessions with projects actors and partners
- Interviews/group sessions with project beneficiaries and HRD sector stakeholders
- Develop a comparative baseline of HRD situation and protection
- Present the findings to projects actors
- Take into account the recommendations of the contracting authorities

4. Timescale

The consultant would work around 25 days in February – beginning of March 2013 to carry out the assessment. The agenda will be divided as such:
- Methodology and preliminary survey
- Literature and legal review
- Field survey
- Report drafting
- Recommendations and report presentation

5. Localisation

The work would be conducted in Arusha, Tanzania, with 2 to 4 field visits in other countries of implementation. A part of the work may be home-based (submit to a prior agreement of the contracting authorities).

Send applications to: mardikiananouche@yahoo.fr by 18th January 2013.