Programme Officer (Legal and Transitional Justice) (P)

Description

Introduction

Established in 1951, IOM is a Related Organization of the United Nations, and as the leading UN agency in the field of migration, works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners. IOM is dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all. It does so by providing services and advice to governments and migrants.

IOM is committed to ensuring a workplace where all employees can thrive professionally, while working towards harnessing the full potential of migration. Read more about IOM's workplace culture at IOM workplace culture | International Organization for Migration

For the purpose of this vacancy, the following are considered first-tier candidates:

1. Internal candidates

2. Candidates from the following non-represented member states:

Bahamas, Barbados, Comoros, Congo (the), Cook Islands, Dominica, Federated States of Micronesia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Holy See, Iceland, Israel, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Nauru, Palau, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.

Second tier candidates include:

All external candidates, except candidates from non-represented member states of IOM.

Context

IOM Iraq’s Legal Empowerment and Transitional Justice (LETJ) Unit sits within the Peace, Recovery and Solutions Division (PRSD). The Unit was restructured to merge what were previously two parallel workstreams — Legal Empowerment and Transitional Justice — into a single operational model organised around three mutually reinforcing pillars: (1) Access to Civic Rights and Justice; (2) Reparations and Justice (System Strengthening); and (3) Participation and Peacebuilding. The Unit operates across projects funded by multiple donors. It is IOM Iraq’s dedicated capacity for addressing the justice and rights deficits that condition the feasibility of durable solutions, return, and reintegration across PRSD.

Iraq’s access to justice and transitional justice landscape is at an inflection point. Key legislation — including the Yazidi Survivors’ Law (YSL), Law No. 20 on Compensation, the Legal Assistance Law No. 7 of 2024, and draft legislation on international crimes — is at different stages of implementation or legislative process. The operational environment is shaped by evolving regional dynamics, fiscal pressure on state institutions, and a shifting donor landscape that requires sustained technical engagement and strategic positioning.

The P3 Programme Officer heads the Unit and is responsible for its strategic direction, technical quality, portfolio management across active projects, donor engagement, and institutional relationships with the Government of Iraq (GoI) and Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The position requires a practitioner with demonstrated experience managing large, multi-donor programmes in complex environments. The position will drive the ongoing harmonisation of the three-pillar architecture while operating at policy, programme management, and field levels simultaneously.

Under the overall supervision of the Chief of Mission (COM) in Iraq and direct supervision of the Senior Programme Coordinator (Peacebuilding and Stabilization), and in close coordination with the Regional Thematic Specialist (RTS) at the Regional Office (RO) for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in Cairo and relevant Divisions/Departments/Units at Headquarters (HQ), the Programme Officer (Legal Empowerment and Transitional Justice) will be responsible for managing, coordinating, and overseeing the activities of the Legal Empowerment and Transitional Justice programme.

Responsibilities

A.  Strategic Leadership and Portfolio Management

1. Coordinate the implementation of the LETJ Unit across its three pillars (Access to Rights; Reparations and Justice; Participation and Peacebuilding), ensuring coherence between workstreams and alignment with PRSD’s protection, stabilization, and durable solutions objectives.

2. Manage a diversified portfolio, coordinating programme design, implementation, monitoring, reporting, and donor compliance across all funding streams.

3. Ensure coherent functioning of the three pillars with shared Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), reporting, financial management, and coordination functions, rather than as parallel workstreams.

4. Contribute to resource mobilization efforts, including concept note development, donor engagement, pipeline management, and cost-recovery mechanisms.

B. Technical Leadership — Legal Empowerment and Transitional Justice

1. Provide technical oversight on legal empowerment: civil documentation, housing, land and property (HLP) rights, legal aid delivery, judiciary workflow standardization, and the expansion of last-mile legal services to conflict-affected and displaced populations.

2. Coordinate IOM Iraq’s engagement on reparations frameworks: implementation support for the YSL, Law No. 20, and the Legal Assistance Law, applying survivor-centred, gender-responsive, and disability-inclusive approaches.

3. Contribute to legislative and policy processes related to accountability and transitional justice, helping positioning the CO as the primary UN technical interlocutor on these issues in Iraq.

4. Contribute, in collaboration with Government partners, to the consolidation of access to justice and reparations institutional architecture, ensuring a survivor-centred approach and coherence across existing legal frameworks.

5. Coordinate with other PRSD units — including Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), Durable Solutions, and Return/Reintegration/Recovery — to integrate LETJ programming into broader divisional processes and contribute to the coherence of cross-cutting activities across pillars.

6. Ensure quality assurance of all technical outputs: policy briefs, legal analyses, institutional capacity-building curricula, bench guides, and evidence-based recommendations to GoI and KRI counterparts.

C. Institutional Engagement and Coordination

1. Maintain working level coordination with GoI and KRI institutions on legal empowerment and transitional justice, including the Prime Minister’s Office, Supreme Judicial Council, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs/General Directorate for Survivors’ Affairs, Directorate of Mass Graves Affairs, and Medico-Legal Directorate.

2. Represent IOM in relevant inter-agency coordination mechanisms on transitional justice, reparations, and accountability, and maintain coordination with other UN agencies on referral pathways and joint programming.

3. Establish and maintain coordination protocols with other PRSD units (Durable Solutions, Return/Reintegration/Recovery, Community Policing, Livelihoods), ensuring LETJ technical expertise informs joint divisional products and is not absorbed into them.

4. Support inter-ministerial coordination linking documentation, legal aid, social protection, and reparations at both federal and KRI levels.

D. Participation, Peacebuilding, and Community Engagement

1. Coordinate the establishment and functioning of survivor participation mechanisms and institutional feedback systems linking survivor voices to decision-making across all three pillars.

2. Guide CSO and survivor association capacity strengthening — training, mentorship, and support for community-led dialogues, ethical documentation, and culturally grounded memorialization and collective reparation activities.

3. Ensure application of IOM’s do-no-harm, ethical storytelling, and communication safeguard standards across all community engagement and public communication activities.

E. Team Management and Operational Oversight

1. Guide and supervise assigned staff and shared-function staff (information management, reporting, financial management), managing personnel across multiple duty stations.

2. Ensure staff well-being, professional development, and performance management for a team operating in a high-stress post-conflict environment with sensitive survivor-facing work.

3. Coordinate donor reporting, ensuring narrative and financial reports meet quality standards and deadlines across all funding streams.

4. Undertake duty travel as required to support project implementation, coordination, monitoring, and institutional engagement.

5. Perform such other duties as may be assigned.

Qualifications

Education

• Master’s degree in Law, International Law, Human Rights, Transitional Justice, Political Science, International Relations, or a related field from an accredited institution, with five years of relevant professional experience; or, 
• University degree in the above fields with seven years of relevant professional experience.
   

Experience

• Experience in legal empowerment, transitional justice, rule of law, human rights, or access to justice programming in conflict-affected or post-conflict settings;

• Demonstrated experience managing multi-donor, multi-project portfolios with budgets exceeding USD 2 million, including programme design, implementation, monitoring, and donor reporting;

• Direct experience with reparations frameworks, survivor-centred justice processes, or institutional capacity building for justice-sector reform;

• Experience working with government counterparts at national and sub-national levels on legislative, policy, or procedural reform related to justice, documentation, or reparations;

• Experience supervising diverse, geographically dispersed teams, including national staff, in complex operational environments;

• Experience in Iraq or comparable Middle East/post-conflict contexts is a distinct advantage; and,

   

• Experience with collective reparations, memorialization, missing persons processes, or mass-grave documentation is a distinct advantage.

Skills

• Knowledge of UN and bilateral donor programming;

• Demonstrated analytical, writing, and policy drafting skills, with demonstrated ability to produce technical briefs, concept notes, legal analyses, and donor reports to a high standard;

• Ability to operate at the intersection of policy, programming, and field operations — translating strategic objectives into operational plans and vice versa; and,

• Demonstrated capacity to engage with senior government officials, judiciary, donors, and UN leadership on politically sensitive and technically complex issues.

Languages

IOM’s official languages are English, French and Spanish. All staff members are required to be fluent in one of the three languages.

For this position, fluency in English is required (oral and written). Working knowledge of Arabic is desirable.

Proficiency of language(s) required will be specifically evaluated during the selection process, which may include written and/or oral assessments.

Required Competencies

IOM’s competency framework can be found at this link Competencies will be assessed during the selection process.

Values - all IOM staff members must abide by and demonstrate these values:

• Inclusion and respect for diversity: Respects and promotes individual and cultural differences. Encourages diversity and inclusion.
• Integrity and transparency: Maintains high ethical standards and acts in a manner consistent with organizational principles/rules and standards of conduct.
• Professionalism: Demonstrates ability to work in a composed, competent and committed manner and exercises careful judgment in meeting day-to-day challenges.
• Courage: Demonstrates willingness to take a stand on issues of importance.
• Empathy: Shows compassion for others, makes people feel safe, respected and fairly treated.

Core Competencies – behavioural indicators Level 2

•  Teamwork: Develops and promotes effective collaboration within and across units to achieve shared goals and optimize results.
•  Delivering results: Produces and delivers quality results in a service-oriented and timely manner. Is action oriented and committed to achieving agreed outcomes.
•  Managing and sharing knowledge: Continuously seeks to learn, share knowledge and innovate.
•  Accountability: Takes ownership for achieving the Organization’s priorities and assumes responsibility for own actions and delegated work.
•  Communication: Encourages and contributes to clear and open communication. Explains complex matters in an informative, inspiring and motivational way

Managerial Competencies - behavioural indicators Level 2

• Leadership: Provides a clear sense of direction, leads by example and demonstrates the ability to carry out the Organization’s vision. Assists others to realize and develop their leadership and professional potential.
• Empowering others: Creates an enabling environment where staff can contribute their best and develop their potential.
• Building Trust: Promotes shared values and creates an atmosphere of trust and honesty.
• Strategic thinking and vision: Works strategically to realize the Organization’s goals and communicates a clear strategic direction.
• Humility: Leads with humility and shows openness to acknowledging own shortcomings.

Notes

Internationally recruited professional staff are required to be mobile. Please refer to this link for guidance on IOM Job Category.

Any offer made to the candidate in relation to this vacancy notice is subject to funding confirmation.

This selection process may be used to staff similar positions in various duty stations. Recommended candidates will remain eligible to be appointed in a similar position for a period of 24 months.

The list of NRMS countries above includes all IOM Member States which are non-represented in the Professional Category of staff members.

Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, security clearances.

Vacancies close at 23:59 local time Geneva, Switzerland on the respective closing date. No late applications will be accepted.

IOM has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and IOM, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities.

IOM does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, processing, training or other fee). IOM does not request any information related to bank accounts.

IOM only accepts duly completed applications submitted through the IOM e-Recruitment system (for internal candidates link here). The online tool also allows candidates to track the status of their application.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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