In response to the request of the Mexican Government, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNOHCHR) decided to support a project focusing on the search of missing persons in Mexico, which is a major national priority. UNFPA is the lead agent in this project and has contracted the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) for the contracting of international personnel to be involved in the project. Under its agreement with UNFPA, UNOHCHR will be co-responsible for the substantive coordination of this group of international experts.
The international experts contracted by UNOPS will be part of the Coordinating Group for the Implementation of the Special Mechanism for Forensic Identification (Mecanismo Extraordinario de Identificación Forense | MEIF).
Data show that disappearances are profoundly linked with gender based violence, and violence directed at children, adolescents and youth. It also tends to affect at the more vulnerable people, such as indigenous people and migrants, as well as human rights activists, environmentalists and those fighting organised crime in a disproportionate manner.
In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need people who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them with full conviction. For this project we are seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; people who are transparent and exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them.
About the MEIF
The Extraordinary Forensic Identification Mechanism (MEIF), officially created by the National Persons Searching System in December 2019, has as mandate the identification, notification and dignified restitution of more than 37,000 bodies with pending identification in Mexico. The MEIF will initially be integrated by a Coordinating Group composed of:
- 4 Forensic identification specialists;
- 1 Specialist in legal and judicial matters in forced disappearance;
- 1 Specialist in international technical cooperation and
- 1 Specialist in psychosocial approaches and family support.
The Coordinating group will have the following main functions:
- Elaborate the internal working guidelines of the MEIF, which will include its action procedures, including monitoring and evaluation mechanisms;
- Develop the MEIF work plan;
- Engage with relatives of the victims, their representatives, victims' groups, experts, activists, legislators and representatives of institutions, civil society organizations and the national and international public organisms necessary for the development, transmission and fulfillment of the mandate and functions of the MEIF;
- Ensure that the MEIF periodically has a strategic planning and evaluation exercise, with the participation of family members;
- Promote the MEIF's involvement against the national and international context with different political and governmental actors, international agencies, relatives of missing persons, their representatives, and civil society organisations, and
- Identify and periodically report on the main challenges of forensic identification in Mexico, based on the interventions and the information provided by family members and collectives.
About the position:
The Psychosocial Approach and Family Support Specialist will be one of the seven members of the MEIF Coordinating Group, and as such will contribute to the planning, organization and supervision of all MEIF activities. She/he will be in charge of developing high-value technical products, as well as strategies, from a psychosocial approach, of bonding, intervention, communication and provision of comprehensive care to the victims of disappearance in the forensic identification, notification and restitution processes to their relatives.
Purpose of the post:
The person selected will be responsible for the generation of technical and programmatic tools for the incorporation of the psychosocial approach in attention to the victims of disappearance, based on international principles, human rights and transversal approaches, on the institutional framework created within the country, within the MEIF framework. The position will also be oriented to the construction of strategies, from a psychosocial approach, of bonding, intervention and care to family members of missing persons, their representatives, groups and civil society organizations.
Reporting lines:
The person selected will operate under the general coordination of the UNFPA and UNOHCHR Representatives in Mexico and reports directly, to the UNOHCHR Human Rights Officer in Mexico and to the UNFPA National Officer in charge of the project.
Additionally, as part of the Coordinating Group and within the framework of the MEIF Creation Agreement , she/he will prepare the reports for consideration of the National System for the Search of Missing Persons, in accordance with the mechanisms established within the MEIF.
Responsibilities:
- Contribute and actively participate in the planning, organization and supervision processes of MEIF activities, in coordination with the members of the Coordinating Group.
- Lead the processes for the development of proposals for MEIF internal policy manuals regarding the participation of family members of missing persons, their representatives, collectives and civil society organizations.
- Prepare and implement bonding and dialogue strategies with victims, from a psychosocial approach in order to strengthen their active, substantive and permanent participation in all MEIF processes.
- Design and implement psychosocial intervention strategies in the forensic identification, notification and restitution processes, in which the MEIF intervenes, taking into account the psychosocial impacts generated by disappearance and other human rights violations.
- Promote the generation of inter-institutional ties that enable comprehensive care for victims of disappearance.
- Design and lead the implementation of the follow-up mechanism for psychosocial care for victims related to the actions of the MEIF.
- Propose effective communication strategies that respect human rights between authorities and victims, with regard to the fulfillment of the MEIF mandate.
Qualifications and Experience:
- Bachelor's degree, or its equivalent, in Psychology, Social Work or other related disciplines of the social and health sciences, followed by a Master's or Doctorate in Human Rights, Victimology, Social Psychology or related sciences. Complementary training in documentation of serious human rights violations, psychosocial support for victims and psycho-legal strategies will be highly valued.
- Demonstrable and recognizable experience at national and/or international level of at least 7 years in the application of the psychosocial approach to care for victims of serious human rights violations in public institutions and / or civil society, or at least 10 years of experience in the case of not having completed postgraduate studies.
- Verifiable experience in:
- Design of psychosocial accompaniment processes for victims in cases of forced disappearance.
- Documentation of psychosocial impacts in cases of serious human rights violations.
- Coordination and development of reports on psychosocial impact in cases of serious human rights violations.
- Design of psycho-legal strategies in cases of serious human rights violations.
- Design and implementation of training strategies on issues related to victim care, human rights, serious human rights violations and / or psychosocial care for victims.
- Design of psychosocial accompaniment processes for victims in cases of forced disappearance.
- Understanding of the implementation of the principles indicated in the General Law on Victims, the General Law on Forced Disappearance of Persons, Disappearances committed by individuals and the National System for the Search of Missing Persons, in the United Nations Guiding Principles for the Search of Disappeared Persons, and other applicable national and international regulations.
- Ability to establish empathetic relationships and decent treatment with family members of disappeared persons.
- Knowledge of the impact of the interaction between the family members of missing persons with the justice system.
- Knowledge of the context and regulatory framework regarding missing persons in Mexico is considered desirable.
- Understanding of forensic processes and their relationship with the search for missing persons and corresponding investigations.
- Respect and dignified treatment of victims.
- Management skills: strategic vision, teamwork, personnel and budget management, leadership, assertive communication and negotiation skills.
- Capacity for inter-institutional coordination and working synergies with victims, collectives of family members of disappeared persons, civil society organizations, legal representatives, authorities at different levels of government and international organizations.
- Capability to coordinate, dialogue and take decisions under pressure in complex scenarios.
- Professional ethics.
Languages:
Fluency in Spanish verbal and written. Fluency in English verbal and written desirable.
More Information (in Spanish):
UNFPA Mexico | Especialista en Enfoque Psicosocial y acompañamiento a familiares (MEIF)