Vacancy: 3 (three) National Consultants for Capacity Building and Analysis of Torture of Women and Men with Psychosocial and Intellectual Disabilities in Psychiatric Facilities, UNDP Moldova

3 (three) National Consultants for Capacity Building and Analysis of Torture of Women and Men with Psychosocial and Intellectual Disabilities in Psychiatric Facilities

Vacancy Number: Pr14/00657

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	01 Oct 2014, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	20 Oct 2014
Reference to the project:	Strengthening National Capacities to Protect the Most Vulnerable from Torture in Moldova
Expected Duration of Assignment:	October 2014 - December 2015
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted online by pressing the "Apply Now" button no later than 1 October 2014. Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: natalia.voronova@undp.org. UNDP will respond by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants. Important notice The applicant who has the statute of Government Official / Public Servant, prior to appointment will be asked to submit the following documentation: a no-objection letter in respect of the applicant received from the government, and; the applicant is certified in writing by the government to be on official leave without pay for the duration of the Individual Contract. A retired government official is not considered in this case a government official, and as such, may be contracted.
Supporting Documents: Terms of Reference Individual Consultant Procurement Notice Personal History Form (P11) UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Background

Moldova signed the EU-Moldova Visa Liberalization Action Plan, in which it committed to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2011-2014, which contains commitments to prevent and combat all acts of torture and ill-treatment. The Justice Sector Reform Strategy 2011-2016 was adopted addressing the problem of torture in its Pillar VI. Related priorities and commitments are established under the UN-Moldova Partnership Framework (UNPF) 2013-2017,which addresses a number of human rights issues, including torture and ill-treatment and a need to secure the rights of the most vulnerable. Additionally, there are a number of international recommendations on combating torture in Moldova, many of which still need to be implemented. In spite of these recommendations and international commitments, torture remains to be a grave human rights violation in Moldova with not all of the aspects of this violation addressed properly and impunity for torture remaining one of the most acute problems.

The problem of torture and ill-treatment in mental health facilities is an emerging issue in Moldova, which has not been adequately addressed both in legislation and practice in spite of numerous complaints from the part of persons affected by it. Thus, the pilot Ombudsperson in psychiatric institutions, who is tasked with providing legal consultancy and drafting monitoring reports on the situation in psychiatric hospitals and neurological internats, has received in October 2012 – July 2013 (during 9 months of her work) 5622 complaints from 1474 institutionalised persons (960 women and 514 men), all of whom complained about several violations, including 281 complaints (5%) on physical abuse, 674 (12%) – on lack of information about treatment, 955 (17%) – on lack of informed consent on institutionalization and treatment, etc. In addition to this, the Center for Human Rights (CHR) and the National Torture Preventive Mechanism (NPM) have released monitoring reports on several psychiatry institutions listing a number of problems, including the complaints of institutionalized persons on ill-treatment from the part of staff persons of the institutions.

The overall objective of the project “Strengthening National Capacities to Protect the Most Vulnerable from Torture in Moldova” is to contribute to the prevention of torture and fighting against impunity on the whole territory of Moldova, including Transnistrian region, especially in respect of the most vulnerable women and men in-line with international human rights standards, Justice Sector Reform Strategy (2011 – 2016) and its Action Plan, and National Human Rights Action Plan (2011-2014). The project seeks to further strengthen the capacities of national stakeholders in monitoring of, reporting on, prevention and combating of torture, especially against women and men with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities in health care facilities. For this purpose the specific objectives of the project are:

Strengthened capacities of the civil society in monitoring and reporting on governmental anti-torture processes, as well as in campaigning to combat impunity, in particular, with regards to women and men with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities;
Increased protection of women and men with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, enhanced provision them with remedies against ill-treatment, and their participation supported in all matters related to torture prevention in health care facilities;
Enhanced effectiveness of key State bodies responsible for torture prevention, protection and redress in combating and redressing torture against women and men with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities.

Scope of work

The tasks and activities will be completed by a team of three National Consultants. The consultants will be experts in the following areas: one will specialise on medical and mental disability issues (Medical Consultant), one will specialise on legal issues and civil society (CSO Consultant), one will specialise on legal issues and State institutions (State Institutions Consultant). Below is the description of scope of work and related activities:

Activity 1: Strengthen monitoring capacities of the CSOs.

Activity 2: Conduct trainings for CSOs, including from Transnistrian region and Gagauzia, on drafting shadow reports on torture to the UN review mechanisms.

Activity 3: Provide post-training consultancy to the CSOs to finalise and submit the drafted shadow reports.

Activity 4: Organise meetings with CSOs, including from Transnistrian region, about the international standards on the prohibition of torture in mental health facilities.

Activity 5: Produce a Report with analysis of national legislation in terms of prohibition and combatting torture in mental health facilities.

Activity 6: Advocate for the implementation of proposals made within the Report.

Activity 7: Train legal aid and NGOs’ lawyers on litigation of cases of torture in mental health facilities taking into account gender sensitive aspects.

Activity 8: Organise a seminar for NPM, CSOs and a group of women and men with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities on torture issues in mental health facilities and their joint monitoring work.

Activity 9: Provide technical support for the NPM in monitoring of mental health facilities in consultation and cooperation with CSOs, women and men with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities.

Activity 10: Support the drafting of Guidelines for Prosecutors on the Investigation of Cases of Torture in order to include information on the investigation of cases of torture in mental health facilities and taking into account gender sensitive aspects.

Activity 11: Organise training of GPO’s Torture Combatting Section prosecutors in the investigation of cases of torture in mental health facilities and taking into account gender sensitive aspects.

In order to achieve the objectives and to implement the abovementioned activities the National Consultants shall:

- Ensure the organization of all activities of the assignment, including:

Timely development and preparation of materials for foreseen trainings, seminars, workshops and other events related to the activities of the assignment;
Collection of feedback and incorporation of feedback into future activities;
Evaluation, organization of follow-up activities and presentation of timely reports;

- Provide expertise on torture in mental health institutions, taking into account gender sensitive aspects in accordance with individual expertise in accordance with each activity of the assignment;

- Provide input to work of the other consultants with his/her expertise in specific areas (in cases where not specifically responsible for the task completion);

- Establish and maintain a dialogue with national counterparts and other consultants, in particular with Communication Consultant;

- Advocate for the delivered results and contribute to the increase of awareness and understanding of the issues of torture by relevant partners and institutions;

- Support the organisation and undertake public presentation of results with the participation of concerned partners (national stakeholders and concerned institutions, academia, CSOs, international community), gather and consider their feedback;

- Develop periodic activity reports on consultancy undertaken, including stages passed, resources used, results obtained versus expected, impact of obtained results, risks overcome, problems faced, lessons learned, conclusions and next stage recommendations and contribute to the Project’s reporting;

- Undertake any other related tasks requested on an ad hoc basis.

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference.

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualifications:

Master’s Degree or equivalent (5-year university education) in relevant field (please refer to TOR);

Years and sphere of experience:

At least 3 years of proven professional experience in relevant field (please refer to TOR);

Competencies:

Proven commitment to the core values of the United Nations; in particular, is respectful of differences of culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, age, HIV status, disability, and sexual orientation, or other status;
Professional understanding of the issue of torture and ill-treatment in relevant field (please refer to TOR);
Understanding of issues of torture and ill-treatment in mental health facilities would be a strong asset;
Proven experience (at least 3 years) in developing and conducting trainings, workshops and presentations and ability to facilitate discussions;
Experience in developing training curricula, methodologies and tools for training activities;
Experience in analysing, generalizing, and systematizing information, drafting studies and reports;
Strong leadership abilities and excellent communication presentation skills, ability to facilitate discussions;
Proven ability to work in a team;
IT skills including word processing, presentation software and use of other relevant applications;
Proven experience in working with the international organizations on similar assignments (successful experience in working with UN agencies is an asset);
Knowledge of one or more additional languages relevant for Moldova, including Bulgarian, Gagauzian, Romani, Ukrainian or sign language is an asset;

Personal qualities:

Responsibility, creativity, flexibility and punctuality.

The United Nations in the Republic of Moldova is committed to workforce diversity. Women, persons with disabilities, Roma and other ethnic or religious minorities, persons living with HIV, as well as refugees and other non-citizens legally entitled to work in the Republic of Moldova, are particularly encouraged to apply.

Documents to be included

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information in English to demonstrate their qualifications:

Personal information (as a detailed CV or as a Personal History Form /P11) including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and concrete outputs obtained, including 3 reference persons and their contacts;
Cover letter, which should include:

(i) A list of capacity building activities/trainings, reports, analysis documents, or other task related documents the candidate has elaborated or contributed to, as well as experience working for or with relevant State institutions and NGOs;

(ii) Financial proposal (in USD, specifying a daily fee amount).

Applications should be submitted for each position individually, specifying the type of consultancy applied for (CSO Consultant, State Institutions Consultant or Medical Consultant). Individuals are encouraged to apply for more than one position.

Financial proposal

The financial proposal will specify the daily fee, travel expenses and per diems quoted in separate line items, and payments are made to each Individual Consultant based on the number of days worked.

Payments will be made on the basis of the periodic reports and timesheets submitted to the UNDP Moldova Justice and Human Rights Programme Analyst.

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

No travel costs are envisaged under this assignment.

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