UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.
The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international treaty adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly. Albania ratified the CEDAW Convention in 1994, and since then it has submitted five periodic reports to the Committee, providing an update on the implementation of the CEDAW Concluding Observations and recent developments on gender equality in the country. As part of its latest reporting cycle, the CEDAW Committee issued in October 2023 a set of concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Albania. As part of the Concluding Observations, the Committee indicated a few priority concerns that Albania is recommended to follow up on and report back to the Committee in 2025, including revising the Law on Gender Equality in Society (GEL), which dates back to 2008. The revision of the GEL is also included as a specific measure part of the National Strategy on Gender Equality 2021-2030, as a key step to strengthen the promotion of a gender equal and just society. The UN in Albania has highlighted that while the GEL has been instrumental to create a strong normative framework on equality between women and men, it would benefit from further alignment with most recent developments in the legal frameworks on gender equality. These include the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights, EU Gender Equality Law and recent EU directives that guarantee equal treatment on the basis of sex. The revised GEL should draw from the experience of other countries with progressive gender equality and non-discrimination legislation, such as EU member states or candidate countries (e.g. France, Spain, Serbia) or non-EU countries (e.g United States). The European Commission’s Gender Equality Law in Europe also provides an overview of how EU gender equality law is implemented by EU Member States, countries in the European Economic Area and EU candidate countries.
As a EU candidate country, currently undertaking accession negotiations, Albania needs to ensure that its national legislation on gender equality and non-discrimination is fully compliant with the EU acquis. In addition, important developments in national legal framework have taken place since the adoption of the GEL in 2008, to which the GEL should align with. Therefore, the revision of the GEL should address gaps that have impacted its effective implementation in practice, including lack of gender quotas across all sectors to promote consistent women’s representation and participation in public life; insufficient provisions and secondary legislation for gender mainstreaming and gender analysis in government action; lack of effective accountability system for the gender equality mechanism; and lack of clear administrative and judicial complaint mechanisms to ensure enforcement of gender anti-discriminatory measures. It is also critical that the new Gender Equality Law establishes systematic links with the National Strategy on Gender Equality and related costing, to allow for relevant investments.
The Government of Albania has already demonstrated strong commitment to fully adopt and implement the recommendations issued by CEDAW Committee, including revising the GEL. The Ministry of Health and Social Protection (MoHSP) established an inter-ministerial working group which is tasked to lead the drafting of the amended GEL.
In this context, UN Women Albania is seeking to recruit legal expert(s) to support the revision of the existing law and engage with the working group, including by providing best practices from other countries and prepare technical inputs. The consultant(s) should also engage in reviewing and providing inputs into the sub-legal acts related to the GEL. The incumbent(s) will be expected to work under the overall supervision of the UN Women Head of Programme and in close collaboration with other UN Women gender equality and human rights experts, as well as with national counterparts especially the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, and other institutional members part of the working group.
Under the overall supervision of the Head of Programme, the consultant(s) will:
Deliverable
Minutes/meeting summaries prepared for UN Women Albania and submitted, as well as oral and written inputs provided to the inter-ministerial working group on the GEL in English and/or Albanian as needed – By end of October 2024
Draft portions and feedback provided for specific provisions of the GEL – On a regular basis until end of October 2024
Analyses, examples and best practices from other countries, including EU countries and others in a similar path of EU accession process, provided and submitted to UN Women on gender equality legislation, in English and/or Albanian, as needed – On a regular basis until end of October 2024
Written feedback, inputs and drafting of specific sub-legal acts in English and/or Albanian, as needed – By 15th December 2024
Presentations, briefs and other inputs in English and in Albanian, as required – By 15th December 2024
Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel
The consultant shall work home-based for a total of up to 40 working days, and be available for regular meetings with the working group and UN Women.
Core Values:
Core Competencies:
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:
https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values
FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES
Education and Certification:
• Master’s degree in Human rights, Law, International Law, International Relations, Gender Studies, Political Science, or related fields Experience:
Languages:
How to Apply:
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