Consultant – Women in Prison Project
NYC Bar Association
Contract
Remote
United States
Consultant – Women in Prison Project
Title: Consultant
Location: Remote
Start date: October 2024
The Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice
The Vance Center advances global justice by engaging lawyers across borders to support civil society and an ethically active legal profession. The Vance Center is a unique collaboration of international lawyers catalyzing public interest innovation. A non-profit program of the New York City Bar Fund and an affiliate of the New York City Bar Association, we bring together leading law firms and other partners worldwide to pioneer international justice initiatives and provide pro bono legal representation to social justice NGOs.
The Human Rights and Access to Justice Program protects individuals from discrimination, violence, injustice, and corruption and supports international human rights bodies committed to such protection. The program partners with local organizations and engages in projects related to advocacy and capacity building at the local, regional and international levels in furtherance of these goals.
The Women in Prison Project undertakes research and analysis into complex international and comparative law issues to assist clients with advocacy, training, legislative reform, and international and regional human rights litigation. Our clients include U.S. based NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the United Nations, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as well as local NGOs abroad, in Latin American and in Africa.
The Women in Prison Network (the Network), which the Vance Center created and manages, is the first global network of advocates for women prisoners, and provides a safe space for advocates to share information and best practices, seek collaborations, and build capacity for improved monitoring and reporting of conditions in women's prisons worldwide.
The Vance Center is undertaking a two-year grant funded project to clarify, through litigation and advocacy, states’ obligations to secure the rights of women in prison under international and regional human rights frameworks. The project seeks to create laws and policies that better address the unique and gender-specific aspects of women’s incarceration, including its causes, conditions, and consequences.
The Consultancy
The Vance Center seeks to retain as an independent contractor a part-time consultant for a period of up to 21 months (October 2024-June 2026) to pursue this project. The consultant, based in the Latin America and Caribbean region, will consult with the Human Rights and Access to Justice Program and the Women in Prison Network.
Providing services remotely while collaborating with the Human Rights Program staff based in New York, the Consultant will have the following main responsibilities:
- Contributing to the launch and management of the Strategic Litigation Council, including attending and coordinating the agenda and activities of the inaugural meeting of the Strategic Litigation Council and providing substantive and logistical support in planning the inaugural and subsequent meetings of the Council and the Network.
- Advising and providing technical assistance to Network members on strategic litigation before international and regional human rights bodies in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Working with the Vance Center, the Network, and other organizations (as applicable) to conduct litigation before regional and international human rights bodies.
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Identifying and coordinating opportunities for strategic litigation alongside the Strategic Litigation Council, including:
- Processing requests for assistance from the Network members.
- Drafting and reviewing case documents.
- Managing systems for the periodic review of individual cases, and for reporting to the Network and the Vance Center.
- Filing amicus briefs in cases currently pending before human rights bodies.
- Participating in hearings before such bodies.
- Joining other organizations as petitioners/plaintiffs in pending cases.
- Draft narrative programmatic reports to grant makers.
- Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications
- A law degree and qualification to practice law in at least one major Latin American jurisdiction and/or a US state.
- Demonstrated experience in litigating and/or bringing cases and leading strategic litigation before the Inter-American and UN systems.
- Experience in coordination and management of litigation cases.
- Experience working on women’s incarceration, women’s rights or prisoners’ rights in Latin America and the Caribbean, or the Global South generally, is highly desirable.
- Experience working in the Global South with civil society and government.
- Experience working within coalitions and networks.
- Written and oral fluency in English and Spanish required, with Portuguese a plus.
- Excellent research, writing, communication, and computer skills.
The compensation for this consultancy will be $1,500/month.
Application instructions:
Please apply with a resume, cover letter, a short writing sample on an international human rights issue, and a list of three references. Candidates being given serious consideration will be informed prior to references being checked. Applicants will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled. No phone calls please.