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Senior Justice Advisor (PSS-23-011-INL-Cote d'Ivoire)
Abidjan, Cote d'IvoireSenior Justice Advisor (PSS-23-011-INL-Cote d'Ivoire)
Requires: MRPT
(Clearance FAQs available here)
Minimum Qualifications
Preferred Qualifications
Duties and Responsibilities
*Candidates are encouraged to submit a .doc or .docx resume that explicitly addresses each of the requirements listed above.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, our applicants and employees are protected from discrimination. Visit http://bit.ly/FederalEEO for more information.
Equal access to programs, services and employment is available to all persons. Those applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application and/or interview process should notify a representative of the Recruiting Team.
This contractor and subcontractor shall abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) and 60-741.5(a). These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals on the basis of protected veteran status or disability and require affirmative action by covered prime contractors and subcontractors to employ and advance in employment qualified protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. To comply with Federal law, ATSG Corporation participates in E-Verify. Successful candidates must pass the E-Verify process after hire.
We respectfully request not to be contacted by recruiters and/or staffing agencies.
U.S. Embassy Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire
Requires: MRPT
(Clearance FAQs available here)
ATSG Corporation is seeking qualified candidates to fill a position for a Senior Justice Advisor to support the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).
The U.S. Department of State is the lead institution for the conduct of American diplomacy and the Secretary of State is the President’s principal foreign policy advisor. The Department of State’s mission is to advance U.S. national security interests, fight terrorism, protect U.S. interests abroad, and implement foreign policy initiatives that build a freer, prosperous, and secure world.
The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) keeps Americans safe at home by countering international crime, illegal drugs, and instability abroad. INL helps countries deliver justice and fairness by strengthening their police, courts, and corrections systems. These efforts reduce the amount of crime and illegal drugs reaching U.S. shores.
INL’s Office of Africa and the Middle East (AME) develops and manages criminal justice sector reform programs and contributes to policy formation on civilian security issues in both regions. INL/AME and INL personnel in-country administer all U.S. government assistance to the criminal justice sector within the Government of Cote d’Ivoire, including its police and justice institutions. The goal of this program is to support nascent Cote d’Ivoire institutions to provide justice as public services to the population of Cote d’Ivoire, improve access to justice, support justice related institutions in Cote d’Ivoire and coordination with security sectors, as well as regional engagements.
The U.S. Department of State is the lead institution for the conduct of American diplomacy and the Secretary of State is the President’s principal foreign policy advisor. The Department of State’s mission is to advance U.S. national security interests, fight terrorism, protect U.S. interests abroad, and implement foreign policy initiatives that build a freer, prosperous, and secure world.
The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) keeps Americans safe at home by countering international crime, illegal drugs, and instability abroad. INL helps countries deliver justice and fairness by strengthening their police, courts, and corrections systems. These efforts reduce the amount of crime and illegal drugs reaching U.S. shores.
INL’s Office of Africa and the Middle East (AME) develops and manages criminal justice sector reform programs and contributes to policy formation on civilian security issues in both regions. INL/AME and INL personnel in-country administer all U.S. government assistance to the criminal justice sector within the Government of Cote d’Ivoire, including its police and justice institutions. The goal of this program is to support nascent Cote d’Ivoire institutions to provide justice as public services to the population of Cote d’Ivoire, improve access to justice, support justice related institutions in Cote d’Ivoire and coordination with security sectors, as well as regional engagements.
Minimum Qualifications
- U.S. citizen, Third Country National (TCN), or Local National (LN).
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in international relations, law enforcement, public policy, or related field (10 years professional law experience can be substituted).
- Juris Doctorate, Master of Law, or Legal degree from an accredited institution.
- Twelve to eighteen years of experience related to the legal profession, courts, criminology, and/or public administration.
- Experience briefing in English.
- Demonstrated experience working overseas in an Embassy environment.
- Demonstrated knowledge and experience working in Francophone Civil law systems in the legal and rule of law field (e.g., attorney, prosecutor, judge, or defense attorney).
- Three years’ experience in the legal profession (e.g., attorney, prosecutor, judge, or defense attorney).
- Knowledge of, and skill in, correct usage of English grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and style.
- Demonstrated oral and written French communication skills. Comfortable working in French at or above a level equivalent to a recognized foreign language proficiency measurement framework, such as the Foreign Service Institute’s defined 3/3 level or defined as General Professional Proficiency. Demonstration or proof of language capability required unless the individual is a native French speaker.
- Minimum of three (03) years of professional experience working as a legal and rule of law advisor to a foreign government in a developing country, preferably in West Africa.
- Demonstrated experience in drafting complex, analytical briefing papers, memoranda, letters, and reports for review and/or signature by senior-level government officials, including U.S. officials or foreign government officials.
- Demonstrated experience in planning, strategizing, implementing, and reporting on projects, including familiarity with basic requirements and mechanisms for contract management and procurement.
- Demonstrated experience in conducting assessments and studies on broad rule of law, legal systems, and criminal justice sectors overseas.
Preferred Qualifications
- Active security clearance (or interim clearance) or Moderate Risk Public Trust (or interim MRPT) within the last 12 months from date of solicitation.
- Demonstrated experience working with international organizations and international donors.
- Demonstrated experience working with U.S. embassies and a variety of senior-level U.S. agency officials and stakeholders.
- Demonstrated experience working with U.S. based and foreign government civil society and non-profit organizations.
- Demonstrated experience working in Cote d’Ivoire or a similar Francophone country on rule of law and legal issues.
- U.S. citizenship.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Advise INL/AME and Post on justice sector related topics. Identify potential program efforts and areas of development for future programs that will fulfill INL’s and Embassy’s goals and objectives.
- Serve as subject matter expert in criminal justice related matters and provide recommendations to INL/AME, Post, and Government of Cote d’Ivoire.
- Liaise with various USG agencies, foreign governments, international organizations, and INL interlocutors and implementers active in the field of criminal justice sector programming in Cote d’Ivoire.
- Maintain the necessary professional and social relationships with Cote d’Ivoire justice sector and other related officials to ensure close, cooperative working relationships.
- Assist with the oversight of INL justice related programming and case management efforts.
- Facilitate and participate in justice related working groups in Cote d’Ivoire to enact judicial reforms.
- Coordinate and engage the Military Justice Advisor to exchange views and expertise on criminal defense sector, develop options to strengthen criminal defense and overall access to justice.
- Identify regional programming opportunities for Cote d’Ivoire that align with USG goals and objectives, particularly but not limited to those related to implementation of the Global Fragility Act/Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability (GFA/SPCPS) in Coastal West Africa.
- Assist in the preparation of reporting and taskers, such as the annual budget request for International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE) funds and the Mission Resource Request. Coordinate annual reporting requirements for INL (e.g., the INCSR parts I and II, the End-Use Monitoring Report, etc.).
- Support records management at Post for INL programs.
- Assist with property management and conduct end-use monitoring and site visits.
- Conduct senior-level field surveys, assessments, meetings, and monitoring trips as requested, and prepare written report and documents related to these efforts.
- Facilitate logistics and coordination for a variety of training and development activities for the Government of Cote d’Ivoire.
- Conduct studies and assessments to validate training needs, study the operations and management of the judicial institutes and continuing legal education.
- Provide training and mentoring to justice sector related actors in Cote d’Ivoire and the judicial institute.
- Assist the judicial institute with their curriculum design, implementation, training opportunities, management of training records, and overall training requirements for both basic and continuing legal education in topics such as criminal law, the 2018 criminal code, victim rights, plea bargaining, and alternatives to incarceration.
- Develop a roadmap through the drafting of assessments and relationship-building for the purpose of aiding the Ivoirian government in implementing recommendations to improve the functions of the legal framework and court administration and operations, including but not limited to the development and drafting of legislation and regulations, standard operating procedures, or guidelines, including plea agreement and sentencing guidelines, ethical codes for judicial personnel, victims’ rights, as well as procedures to formalize the roles and responsibilities between the informal and formal justice sectors.
- Conduct studies and assessments on the informal justice sector and help the government of Cote d’Ivoire develop and implement standard operating procedures between the informal and formal justice sectors.
- Assist the formal justice sector with outreach efforts to the community, informal justice sector, community leaders, and Cote d’Ivoire civil society to educate them about the formal justice sector and citizen rights and protections.
- Conduct studies and assessments on court administration and operations, the state of pre-trial detentions, and assist the government with reform in these areas as well as case and records management, and internal sectoral data/statistics to track cases and pre-trial detention rates.
- Develop studies and assessments on the status of existing case management and information sharing systems between sectors (e.g., on case assignment, process, tracking, and reporting), as well as regionally to facilitate improvements to overall case management efforts, including electronification of case and information sharing.
- Conduct studies and assessments of the International Counterterrorism Academy (French acronym AILCT) to determine its organization, operations, and funding, courses offered, trainings for the civilian security and justice sectors, the functions of its research arm, the nationalities of the trainees, as well as how the training offered at the Academy is differentiated from others in the region.
- Determine options for potential assistance and usage of the AILCT for INL programs.
- Assist in developing agreements, platforms, and actual trainings for joint law enforcement and prosecutor/magistrate trainings and operations to facilitate cross-sectoral coordination and collaboration between law enforcement and justice sectors, and determine the venue for such trainings, including through the AILCT or judicial institute.
- Conduct review and assessment of legislation, regulations, and ongoing practices relevant to the investigation and prosecution of terrorism offenses and make recommendations for statutory, regulatory, and institutional reform in coordination with the Bureau of Counterterrorism and other relevant stakeholders.
- Provide advice, mentoring, and technical assistance to the government of Cote d’Ivoire on complex cases, including terrorist, transnational, and high-level corruption cases.
- Conduct necessary studies of existing anticorruption bodies and develop as well as implement guidance and recommendations for the government of Cote d’Ivoire and civil society on accountability mechanisms to address any potential high-level corruption or misconduct cases.
- Expand linkages between prosecutors and magistrates with the community policing sector to establish community policing/prosecutor magistrate team approaches to address various issues.
- Support the development of legal professional organizations and institutions by providing model constitutions and by laws and connect national legal professional organizations with regional and international organizations, as well as criminal defense services to increase overall access to justice.
*Candidates are encouraged to submit a .doc or .docx resume that explicitly addresses each of the requirements listed above.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, our applicants and employees are protected from discrimination. Visit http://bit.ly/FederalEEO for more information.
Equal access to programs, services and employment is available to all persons. Those applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application and/or interview process should notify a representative of the Recruiting Team.
This contractor and subcontractor shall abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) and 60-741.5(a). These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals on the basis of protected veteran status or disability and require affirmative action by covered prime contractors and subcontractors to employ and advance in employment qualified protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. To comply with Federal law, ATSG Corporation participates in E-Verify. Successful candidates must pass the E-Verify process after hire.
We respectfully request not to be contacted by recruiters and/or staffing agencies.