JOB DESCRIPTION
DEVELOPMENT WORKER POST
International Law Training and Research Coordinator
Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling
Occupied Palestinian Territory
1. Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling
WCLAC was established in Jerusalem in 1991 as a Palestinian independent non-governmental
non-profit organisation with the aim of contributing to the building of a democratic Palestinian
society based on principles of equality and social justice between men and women. In order to
achieve this aim, WCLAC develops programmes and projects with a clear agenda whose terms
of reference are derived from international human rights standards in order to serve
Palestinian women. WCLAC’s five units work together to implement and follow-up those
programmes and projects.
By forging a feminist vision aimed at achieving equality and social justice, WCLAC has been
able to make an important number of achievements in the area of human rights and, in
particular, Palestinian women's rights. In 1998, WCLAC was awarded the French annual prize
for human rights for its initiative to influence Palestinian decision makers and legislature in
adopting laws, legislation and policies ensuring equality and the rights of Palestinian women.
Since its establishment, WCLAC has issued a group of Arabic and English language reports and
studies analyzing the status of Palestinian women. These have been used as references for
students and others involved in the improvement of the status of women and the removal of
discrimination against them.
Structure and culture
The Centre has a board of trustees, a Director, deputy Director and full staff. WCLAC operates
its programmes out of three offices: the new main office in Ramallah, as well as offices in
Hebron and the Old City of Jerusalem. It is an efficient organisation with 5 main operational
units under which all work is done. WCLAC has demonstrated impressive organisational
capacity at a high level.
The team, however, will in practice use a participatory team approach, where many of the
decisions will be made through discussion. The team will consist of existing staff (librarian and
programme assistant) and newly recruited staff, amongst others. The Director is Ms. Maha
Abu-Dayyeh.
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2. The Work of WCLAC
WCLAC focuses on Palestinian women (those 18 years and older) who are caught in a vicious
circle of violence and fear, where neither the private nor the public sectors provide any solace
or protection. They are victimised by political violence, living in perpetual fear for their safety
and that of their families while bearing the additional burdens imposed on them under
harrowing conditions such as house demolitions. They are also victims of heightened violence
within their homes but are unable to speak publicly against their attackers due to the
possibility of being accused of selfish and unpatriotic behaviour and of being blamed for the
victimisation.
To incorporate the above goals, WCLAC implements various activities such as:
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Organisational Capacity Building
Lobbying and advocacy
Social support program
Empower battered women through group therapy and counselling
Legal aid and education program
Community-based research
WCLAC educates and trains women in the various social and legal fields by means of
workshops and lectures organised in the cities, villages and refugee camps. WCLAC has been
professionally instrumental in following up cases of socially victimized women and women
whose legal rights have been violated through legal representation, personal support and
social counselling. WCLAC also addresses the consequences of decades-long occupation and
Israeli violence against Palestinian women through advocacy and service delivery programmes.
In general, Palestinian women are noticeably underrepresented in paid job opportunities, are
exposed to unsuitable working conditions, and have less control over economic resources
compared to men.
For several years, WCLAC has been working at developing capacity to deal effectively with
applying international laws and conventions to improve Palestinian women's status. This has
been done through both theoretical and practical work to become critically knowledgeable,
i.e., analyse both the strengths and limitations of existing frameworks and begin to reconceptualise areas that are not applicable to Palestinian situation in order to generate more
effective intervention strategies at the international level. Although WCLAC has designated a
staff position to do the work, there are limits due to lack of technical expertise. Several
focused attempts have been made to move the work forward such as attending training
workshops and securing technical assistance locally. The most difficult problem faced is making
linkages between the impact of occupation and liberation of Palestinian people on one hand
and women's rights on the other. Too often, national liberation struggles have been divorced
form women's liberation. WCLAC’s goal is to show how the two are inextricably linked
therefore must be dealt with accordingly in the international legal arena.
To achieve its strategic objective, WCLAC decided to create the Palestinian Women's Human
Rights Programme. Two units assume more responsibility for directly addressing the
issue. These are the Advocacy and Lobbying and the Research and Documentation
units. The project proposed below will be housed in the Research and Documentation
Unit.
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3. The Project
Within its Research and Documentation Unit programme, WCLAC needs to build operational
capacity. The need for expertise in handling issues pertaining to advanced research, UN
mechanisms and networking are an essential component for the Centre’s continued operation
and service delivery. WCLAC needs to set up a sustainable system, staffed by skilled personnel
to implement its research related strategy. Such expertise is lacking at the Centre and the
skills/profile required are not available locally. There are organisations that provide assistance
and training on matters related to traditional understandings of international laws and
conventions but none on feminist perspectives and frameworks that will enable WCLAC to
accomplish its strategic objective. To this end the DW would train, build capacity in advanced
research on international laws and conventions, and assist in networking with NGOs and UN
organisations to further boost the efficiency of the staff.
4. Development Worker Role
The main role of the Development Worker will be to build the capacity and networking
capabilities of the organisation to enable enhanced delivery of its legal training and research
goals. As legal research and training coordinator, the DW will be able to provide organisational
capacity building assistance and training to WCLAC’s Research and Documentation Unit staff to
improve its programmatic operations so as to effectively achieve these goals.
As with every other unit within WCLAC, the RDU is overseen by the Unit Head. Unlike the other
units, this is a relatively small unit with two full-time researchers and Feminist Research
Consultant, plus the Unit Head whose primary responsibilities are administrative and training.
The philosophy and practice of the unit is based on feminist democratic or principles where all
major intra-unit decisions are taken collectively with significant input often from all the other
units. This is true especially for deciding which research projects to undertake.
The main objectives of WCLAC for this project are as follows:
o To document violations of Palestinian women's human rights in both the public and
private spheres.
o To utilise existing international laws and conventions to address violations that are the
result of both Israeli occupation and internal gender-based inequalities.
o Create conceptual and theoretical framework for international aspects of Palestinian
Women’s Human Rights Program;
o Develop and refine feminist methodology for documenting human rights violations of
women for use both by WCLAC and other organisations;
o Develop staff capacity internally within WCLAC, particularly in Research and
Documentation and Advocacy and Lobbying units, who will apply international
frameworks directly to their respective areas of responsibility, and remaining staff will
have general information and rudimentary knowledge
o Monitor actions, document incidents, and collect various other kinds of data regarding
violations of women’s rights, from violence against women by the Israeli army and in
the private sphere;
o Disseminate findings via print and electronic media locally, regionally, and
internationally;
o Organise community-based local educational events, focusing particularly on women
and men outside the major urban centres, to raise awareness and gain support for
application of international human rights protocols;
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Strengthen existing relations and forge new ones at the international level by
attending relevant meetings to learn from and to gain political support from
international actors and institutions by disseminating most current information
regarding the situation facing Palestine and Palestinian women.
The general objective for the DW is to provide the theoretical leadership in the international
aspect of WCLAC’s Palestinian Women’s Human Rights Programme.
Specific objectives include:
o Developing the theoretical and conceptual frameworks for both the substantive work
and organisation of the international aspect of the PWHR program
o Educating and training the project participants, most especially the RDU staff trainee,
other staff colleagues, and the community fieldworkers, in foundational aspects of
international human rights laws and conventions as they apply specifically to women
and girls
o Supervising and evaluating staff trainee and fieldworkers during the initial phase of
applying new learning in cooperation with Unit Head.
The specific activities of the Development Worker are expected to be1:
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Learning the specificity of current women's situation in both private and public
spheres in OPT
Organizing and leading workshops for Unit, Centre staff, fieldworkers, and eventually
others in the wider community
Working closely with and teaching staff-trainee how to write related concept papers,
working papers, press releases, position papers, and so on
Overseeing and assuming primary responsibility for writing the UNCEDAW Shadow
Report and conjointly teaching staff-trainee for future writing of such reports
Work with staff-trainee to provide women's and gender dimensions to various treaty
bodies and to Palestinian reports submitted to the UN
Writing theoretical papers, and designing and preparing training materials and
ultimately a training manual. This plan will include strategy and methods for eventual
transfer of her responsibilities to staff trainee and room for incorporating tasks
responding to emergency or urgent action.
The Development Worker will be supervised by the Head of the Research and Documentation
Unit and the Feminist Research Consultant.
4. Person Specification
The following experience and qualifications are expected from the ideal candidate:
Academic requirements:
 Minimum law degree in international human rights law;
 MA international relations or other related areas
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The final lists of tasks will be identified at the start of the posting.
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Specific training:
 Training on UN mechanisms and instruments
 Research training, analytical and theoretical writing
Work experience
 At least two years of experience in action- research policy based
 Human rights, Networking, coordination mechanisms
 Working knowledge of international legal institutions and instruments
 Some experience in working in insecure environments.
Organisational skills:
 Ability to think strategically and to plan ahead
 Ability to work in a team
 Ability to promote and work with groups,
Capacity building skills:
 Ability to transfer his/her skills and to organize/give training.
 Ability to convert theory and standards into operational proposals/activities.
 Experience in working with NGOs
Language skills
 English: Excellent / Native speaker standard
 Arabic: Some basic knowledge in Arabic is preferred
Personal qualities
 Ability to adapt skills and time to all necessary tasks
 Flexibility in scheduling, location and nature of work
 Confident, self-motivated and initiative-taking
 Independent yet able to work cooperatively and closely with all staff, both local and
international
 Ability to communicate with people from different cultures
 Sensitivity to and self awareness of attitudes about Arabic cultural traditions and local
religions
 Ability to explain complex and difficult issues effectively to persons with different levels of
understanding and experiences
 Ability to maintain clear communication among stake holders.
 Able to work under pressure and in stressful conditions
 Able to deal with violence and frustration.
 Able to cope well with unpredictability
 Should have some knowledge and understanding of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict and the
Middle East region
 Results oriented.
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5. Living and Working Conditions
Location
The main office of WCLAC is in Ramallah, located in the Centre of the West Bank,
approximately sixteen kilometres north of Jerusalem. The DW will be living in Ramallah and
working in the Ramallah, Jerusalem and Hebron areas with the Research and Documentation
Unit.
Ramallah is one of the main cities in the West Bank and often seen as the most liberal. Though
recreational civic activity has waned considerably since 2000 still there are restaurants,
coffeehouses (some of which serve alcohol and beer) and cinemas that are functioning and
popular. Ramallah is relatively small and distances within the city are easily covered by
walking. However, taxis, or ‘serveeces’ are readily available to take passengers either within
the city confines or to the checkpoint entrances of other cities in the West Bank (including
Jerusalem).
Living in harmony with local culture:
Palestinian society is generally conservative, though there are pockets of liberalism in each
community. Compared to the communities of the West Bank, people in Gaza tend to be more
outwardly conservative (i.e., it is rare to see women without hijab on the street).
The culture of the occupied Palestinian territories is Arab in its roots and similar to that in the
wider region (Jordan, Syria and Lebanon). ‘Arab hospitality’ is deeply ingrained within
Palestinian communities; visitors rarely go hungry, thirsty, or without offers of shelter for the
night in a Palestinian village, no matter how poor. Extended families have been the norm but
have started to disintegrate in recent years, due to the prevailing circumstances and
immigration to Arab and Western countries. Contrary to certain conceptions, gender roles are
surprisingly balanced, especially in rural areas. It is not easy for outsiders to understand the
complexities of gender roles in a situation marred by violence and conflict, survival oriented
behaviour and changing cultural concepts, where 50% of the university students can be
female, while early (as young as age fourteen) marriage of girls and limits on girls’ education
and discrimination in the labour market do occur.
Palestinian communities are close-knit, and personal information about anyone easily
becomes public. Foreigners and Palestinians alike often feel that they do not have much
personal space or privacy within villages especially. Given the conservatism and the lack of
privacy, Development Workers are advised – even in more urban areas - to limit evidence of
alcohol consumption and extra-marital sexual activity, and to dress modestly when interacting
with members of the community.
Logistics of Development Worker placement:
Office supplies, office equipment, computers, and other necessary equipment are available
though not exclusively for the Development Worker.
Regular travel is foreseen for coordination and networking purposes. The Development
Worker will, in general, make use of local public transportation and taxis and will be
reimbursed by the partner.
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Transportation between the workplace and residence will not be reimbursed. The working
week at WCLAC is Saturday and Monday to Thursday; Fridays and Sundays constitute weekend
days off. Working hours are 9.00-16.00
6. Conditions of Service
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Appointment for a minimum of six months.
Living allowance (US$1200-/month)
Accommodation costs.
Medical costs, personal insurance and medical evacuation cover.
Volunteer Development Worker Class 2 National Insurance contribution, if eligible.
Travel costs to and from Palestine from Development Worker’s home country.
Training costs.
Holidays comprise total of 20 annual days off, excluding public holidays.
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