TERMS OF REFERENCE

HOTLINE LEGAL OFFICERS

Where the context allows, words importing the singular should include the plural and vice-versa, and words importing the masculine include the feminine and vice-versa.

1. BACKGROUND

Initiatives for Peace and Human Rights (iPeace) is a non-profit organization that works for sustainable peace in the Great Lakes region through human rights and good governance education. iPeace is legally registered and operational in Rwanda, DRC, and Burundi with a mission to equip communities and individuals with knowledge and skills to build a global culture of peace. The organization’s vision is to see the Great Lakes Region become a place where community members and leaders work together by holding each other accountable in upholding human rights values and principles of good governance.

With financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, iPeace in partnership with International Alert and Pole Institute will implement the “HAKI BILA MIPAKA” project. This project aims to contribute to strengthening access to justice for people in the cities across the border between the DRC and Rwanda.

To achieve this objective, iPeace will implement several activities including the provision of free legal aid to cross-border populations, the capacity building of judicial actors, as well as the training of young academics in international humanitarian law and human rights. This project will be carried out in the Western Province, especially in Rubavu, Rusizi and Bugarama.

It is in this context that iPeace is looking for qualified persons to offer our team technical support in providing legal aid through the hotline in implementation of the project.

2. SCOPE OF WORK

iPeace-Rwanda is looking for qualified and experienced legal officers to provide legal support to remote clients through the toll free line.

The hotline legal officers will be able to provide legal advices, processing legal documents for clients through the toll-free line, performing research and regularly identify and analyse legal issues.

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate the ability to be a quick decision-maker, ability to work in a diverse team of colleagues from different backgrounds, and to liaise with legal officers to ensure legal aid activities are operational and effective.

The hotline legal officer will report directly to the Project coordinator with regular interactions with other colleagues in the field. He/she will manage all calls to ensure that clients who call are provided with quality and quick legal support. He/she will be responsible for ensuring that legal aid services through the Hotline are provided in accordance with iPeace’s policies and best practices.

3. Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the Hotline legal officers will include the following:

• Receiving clients’ complaints and ensuring that their data are handled in the strict respect of the law and recognized data protection and privacy standards,
• Providing legal advice to clients, promptly liaising with field legal officers and/or lawyer for appropriate follow ups;
• Filling out data in the online data-base for real-time monitoring and data information sharing among iPeace’s legal aid team;
• Following up on each of the received cases to provide timely feedback to the client;
• Suggesting best ways to improve remote delivery of legal services to clients,
• Providing weekly, monthly and quarterly report in the format agreed upon by the
• supervisor,
• Generating data from legal aid data base to inform iPeace management about any potential topic for advocacy and research
• Performing any other task assigned by iPeace management

4. QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS REQUIRED

Qualifications and experience below are required from any candidate:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Law from a recognized university
• At least 3 years proven experience in legal aid provision
• Excellent command of written and spoken English and Kinyarwanda with very good proficiency in French (reports and meetings will sometimes be held in French).
• A strong communication skills and customer-support attitude
• A passion for justice and fairness
• The ability to work well and independently under pressure and to communicate appropriately and effectively within a multicultural setting;
• The ability to absorb and analyze large amounts of information
• A high level of accuracy and attention to detail
• The ability to explain legal matters clearly in non-legal language
• Confidence and a persuasive manner
• Time management and strong organizational skills.