Legal Officer – Sexual Exploitation of Children Online, ECPAT International

Organisational Background

ECPAT International is a global network of organisations working together for the elimination of child prostitution, child pornography and the trafficking of children for sexual purposes. It seeks to encourage the world community to ensure that children everywhere enjoy their fundamental rights free and secure from all forms of commercial sexual exploitation.

The ECPAT network currently has more than 85 member organizations in over 77 countries in Africa, Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. All of these members are independent organisations or coalitions working against the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The ECPAT Secretariat coordinates the global work of ECPAT International and is based in Bangkok, Thailand. The Secretariat designs programmes, advocacy and strategies to facilitate a range of network initiatives to make the greatest impact on combating Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC).

The Legal Officer will be based in the ECPAT Secretariat, in Bangkok, Thailand, within the sexual exploitation of children online (SECO) Programme team. ECPAT International’s history is rooted in advocacy strategies to combat child sexual exploitation of children through the misuse of technologies with extensive work over the years to put this issue on the global agenda. ECPAT’s Programme to Combat Sexual Exploitation of Children Online promotes a multi-stakeholder approach through working closely with civil society organizations, law enforcement, government and inter-governmental entities as well as the private sector, in addressing this issue at all levels. One area of work of the SECO Programme is looking at legal frameworks at national and regional level and how these are implemented and aligned with international norms such as the Council of Europe Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, in order to use the findings to both support advocacy strategies of our network members and advocacy processes with policy and law makers globally.

Job purpose

Under the overall guidance of the Head of the Combating Sexual Exploitation of Children Online Programme, the Legal Officer is responsible for the development and implementation of the SECO Programme legal work and provides SECO related legal input to advocacy and other papers at organizational level (under technical supervision of Head of Legal Programme).

The main tasks and responsibilities are detailed below.

Tasks and Responsibilities

Legal research and advocacy

• Research, collect and analyze information on national laws and legal procedures related to sexual offences against children online in different countries/jurisdictions. This includes identifying amendments and changes, identifying good practices, researching case law, drafting a variety of reports and updating existing ones;

• Develop position papers as well as advocacy briefs on specific aspects of procedural and substantive laws at a national, regional and international level in order to make recommendations and raise awareness about legal challenges to eventually feed in advocacy processes;

• Present SECO Programme’s advocacy messages in the field of expertise targeting key stakeholders and decision makers;

• Prepare country briefings on the topic of the sexual exploitation of children online to be submitted to the UN CRC on the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC) for those State Parties that are due for reports focusing on the Sexual Exploitation of Children;

• Input the SECO legal components for institutional advocacy papers and studies;

• Ensure coherence of outputs and results with agreed work plans and timelines;

Supporting the development of the legal component in the capacity building strategy for network members

• Develop the content of training modules and materials related to key identified legal aspects which are designed to build the capacity of the network members in coordination with the Capacity Building Officer of the SECO Programme;

• Deliver the content, face-to-face or remotely, whenever scheduled;

• Provide technical expertise upon requests of ECPAT´s network members on particular legal aspects in the field of expertise;

• Identify key topics for content development in the field of expertise aligned with the SECO Programme´s objectives and priority areas;

• Actively promote the objectives of the SECO Programme strategy;

• Perform other tasks as assigned;

Profile

Qualifications

• Advanced university degree in law or commensurate work experience in the legal field;

• Minimum of 5 years progressively responsible and relevant professional experience working in the legal arena at a national, regional and/or international level;

• Demonstrated knowledge of the child´s right to be protected from sexual exploitation in a digital environment related-issues (substantive and procedural laws);

• Relevant experience in the field of international development, human rights, and non-governmental organisations;

• Excellent English language skills; knowledge of French/ Spanish/ Russian is a plus.

Competencies

• Demonstrated commitment to ECPAT’s vision, values and principles;

• Communication: excellent writing, speaking and presentation skills;

• Drive for results;

• Relating and networking: excellent interpersonal skills, diplomacy, and tact;

• Persuading and influencing: charismatic, credible and good negotiating skills.

• Ability to analyze and synthesize large amounts of information;

• Sound strategic thinking and planning skills, including the ability to think creatively, to innovate and to set priorities, create management work plans and evaluate progress.

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Application deadline: 4 August 2015

Read more and apply here.