Result of Service

1. At least 180 legislative entries or strategies and 30 cases analyzed and made available on SHERLOC, with a focus on Arabic;

2. At least 3 presentations on SHERLOC-related matters delivered to relevant stakeholders;

3. Bilateral consultations held and evaluated during the International Cooperation Working Group.

Work Location

Vienna, with possibility of travel.

Expected duration

1 September 2023 – 29 February 2024

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Background of the assignment

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), which nears universal adherence with 191 parties, is the only international convention dealing with organized crime. It is supplemented by three Protocols on Trafficking in Persons, Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Firearms. These instruments offer States Parties a unique and comprehensive framework for preventing and combating organized crime in all its manifestations.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), through its Global Programme on Implementing the Organized Crime Convention, plays a key role in supporting the efforts of Parties to implement UNTOC and observations emanating from its Review Mechanism, coordinating and delivering comprehensive legislative, strategic and technical assistance. Aside from the direct implementation support to States, the Global Programme has been developing and regionalizing a series of tools for legislative drafters, legislators, policymakers, and criminal justice practitioners, as well as leading awareness-raising and education activities on the Organized Crime Convention.

Furthermore, an important direction of the work of the Global Programme is collecting, analyzing and disseminating knowledge on organized crime. Further to relevant mandates from the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (COP), UNODC started, in 2010, the development of the knowledge management portal known as SHERLOC (Sharing Electronic Resources and Laws On Crime). It is a UNODC on-going initiative aimed at facilitating the dissemination of information regarding the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Protocols thereto. Ever since, SHERLOC has become a practitioner’s tool for police investigators, prosecutors and judges; a monitoring tool for government policy-makers; an awareness-raising tool for the public and media; as well as an information tool for researchers, legal drafters and all those responding to transnational organized crime. The portal is maintained and updated by a cross-divisional team coordinated by a focal point within the Global Programme on Implementing UNTOC.

It currently hosts seven databases: (1) the Case Law Database, (2) the Database of Legislation (3) the Bibliographic Database, (4) the Directory of Competent National Authorities, (5) the Database of Strategies, (6) the Database on Treaties and (7) the Education for Universities Database. Additionally, it hosts the electronic version of the Legislative Guide whose purpose is to assist States seeking to ratify or implement the Organized Crime Convention.

The Case Law Database is a comprehensive database allowing users to see how Member States are tackling organized crime cases both operationally and in their courts. It contains jurisprudence, as well as records of successful law enforcement operations with regard to counterfeiting, cybercrime, drug offences, money laundering, obstruction of justice, participation in an organized criminal group, piracy and maritime crimes, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in firearms, trafficking in cultural property, crimes affecting the environment, trafficking in persons, falsified medical products, corruption and terrorism.

The Database of Legislation is an electronic repository of laws relevant to the provisions of UNTOC and the Protocols thereto. It is searchable by: (1) country, (2) UNTOC article, (3) crime type, and (4) cross-cutting issue. While also enabling access to full legislation documents, the Database of Legislation provides extracts of laws relevant to specific UNTOC articles and crime types, allowing the users to quickly find provisions relating to their search query.

The above-mentioned databases include summaries and, when available, full court decisions of more than 3,000 cases on transnational organized crime and counter-terrorism, as well as more than 11,000 relevant legal provisions, from more than 190 countries and more than 1300 bibliographic abstracts. These can be accessed through: sherloc.unodc.org.

The Bibliographic Database is an annotated bibliography providing a synopsis of key articles that are searchable by: (1) country, (2) crime type, and (3) cross cutting issue.

The Directory of Competent National Authorities contains the authorities designated to receive, respond and process requests pertaining to mutual legal assistance, extradition and transfer of sentenced prisoners, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in firearms, trafficking in cultural property and terrorist cases.

The Database on Strategies, which is the most recent, provides access to strategies and plans of actions adopted at national level pertaining to the fifteen different crime types, while a dedicated Database on Treaties provides the ratification status of the UNTOC and the Protocols thereto, as well as of other relevant international instruments.

Finally, the Education for Universities (Edu4U) Database contains a series of education materials to support lecturers in teaching on crime related thematic areas.

By creating these databases, SHERLOC aims at developing internationally agreed upon legal mechanisms against transnational organized crime, while improving the visibility of successful prosecutions and promoting awareness about the devastating realities of organized crime and terrorism.

2. Purpose of the assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to perform analysis and dissemination of legislation, case law and policy-related documents, with a focus on Arabic, in the framework of the information-gathering efforts on the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), as well as to make such documents available on the SHERLOC knowledge management portal and undertake awareness-raising activities to promote the Portal, including, but not limited to, conducting bilateral consultations and delivering expert presentations.

3. Specific outputs to be performed by the consultant

Under the guidance of UNODC Programme Manager of the Global Programme on Implementing the Organized Crime Convention and the direct supervision of UNODC Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer, the consultant will perform the following specific outputs:

• Perform legal research with a focus on Arabic, and make available on SHERLOC a minimum of 180 new legislative provisions or strategies and a minimum of 30 new cases;

• Contribute to awareness-raising activities on SHERLOC with a focus on Arabic, delivering at least 3 presentations on the portal;

• Conduct bilateral consultations on SHERLOC during the working group on international cooperation, as well as in any other relevant intergovernmental fora.

Qualifications/special skills

• An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in law, international law, and/or criminal law or related field is required. A first level university degree in similar fields in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A minimum of 2 years of progressively responsible experience in analysis of legislation/ legal research is required;
• Experience in analysis of legislation/legal research in the area of crime prevention and criminal justice and/or organized crime or closely related issues is desirable;
• Previous experience working with knowledge management portals, such as legal databases, is desirable;
• Previous work experience in international organizations is desirable;
• Previous experience with website content management systems is desirable;

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this position, fluency in Arabic and English (both oral and written) is required. Working knowledge of another official language of the UN is an advantage.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.