Result of Service

Under the overall supervision of the Chief of FSS/CEB and the guidance of the substantive officer, the Individual Contractor will perform the following specific tasks:

• Support the finalization of the database re-design and suggest improvements;
• Conduct case research on international asset recovery cases to update case entries and identify new cases to be included;
• Identify, review, and include source documents to be attached to cases (e.g. agreements, press releases, court documents);
• Organize, systematize, and enter case information collected from UNCAC States parties through two questionnaires (2020-2022);
• Support preparations for the launch of the new Asset Recovery Watch database at the tenth session of the Conference of States Parties (COSP) to the UNCAC in Atlanta in December 2023.

Confidentiality:

• The individual contractor shall respect States parties laws at all times and abide by all relevant United Nations rules, in particular in terms of confidentiality.
• The individual contractor will be required to maintain the strictest degree of confidentiality on the information to which he/she will be exposed. Any materials or information, whether written, audio-visual or oral must be used exclusively for the purpose of this assignment and are not to be shared with anyone outside of defined delivery channels on a need-to-know basis.
• No statements will be made to any third party regarding any matter associated with any engagement with the countries that agree to partner with StAR under this project unless authorized explicitly and in writing by the StAR Secretariat.
• The individual contractor shall manage information, reports, documents, and electronic media obtained, accessed, or reviewed under this ToR in a secure manner and location. The privacy, safekeeping, security, and integrity of those documents are matters for which the consultant will be responsible.

Work Location

Home-based or in Washington DC

Expected duration

01/08 – 31/12/2023

Duties and Responsibilities

Background of the assignment:

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is the global leader in the fight against drugs, organized crime, corruption and terrorism with widely recognized expertise and specialization on issues pertaining to international cooperation in criminal matters. The work of UNODC is guided by a broad range of international legally binding instruments and a set of United Nations standards and norms on crime prevention and criminal justice.

UNODC, as guardian of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and Secretariat to the Conference of the States Parties to the Convention, has the mandate to provide support and technical assistance to States parties to effectively implement the Convention.

The United Nations Convention against Corruption (hereinafter ‘the Convention’) is the most comprehensive international legally-binding instrument to prevent and fight corruption. States parties to the Convention are obliged to take legislative and other measures in the areas of prevention, criminalization and law enforcement, international cooperation and asset recovery. As of March 2021, the Convention has been signed by 140 States and ratified by 187 States and the European Union. To assess States parties’ compliance with the provisions of the Convention, the Implementation Review Mechanism has been established as a mandatory peer-review process. Among other important results of the Mechanism, a great wealth of data, in particular relevant national laws, has been collected.

UNODC, in partnership with the World Bank Group, supports international efforts to end safe havens for corrupt funds through the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR). StAR works with developing countries and financial centers to prevent the laundering of the proceeds of corruption and to facilitate a more systematic and timely return of stolen assets. StAR’s mission is to assist countries to put in place the legal framework to enable them to recover assets that are the proceeds of corruption from abroad and to build the capacity of countries to implement that framework.

In the 2021-2024 workplan, the StAR Initiative will continue to deliver its programme through work streams: country engagement, policy influence and partnerships, and knowledge and innovation.

Accurate and timely data on asset recovery is required to inform policy debates and help policymakers and other stakeholders put in place effective asset recovery frameworks. The systematic collection and publication of information on international asset recovery also help give credit to jurisdictions that make the return of proceeds of corruption a priority and inform the calculus of jurisdictions or financial institutions that may have turned a blind eye towards offering a safe haven for gains from corruption in the past.

In order to improve data collection on asset recovery, StAR launched a public database in 2011, Asset Recovery Watch (ARW), which compiles and systematizes information about corruption-related international asset recovery cases. StAR’s Asset Recovery Watch database was the only systematic effort to track efforts by prosecution authorities worldwide to go after assets that stem from corruption. By making this information public in an easily searchable format, the ARW aims to raise awareness on asset recovery and spur countries to work at both national and international levels to remove barriers to asset recovery.

The StAR Asset Recovery Watch was compiled using public, official documents, such as texts of court judgments and orders and government press releases. Where no official documentation was available, reliable media articles were used as source material. The most relevant source documents have been appended to each entry. The database contained 245 entries that detail cases involving over 50 requesting and over 40 requested jurisdictions, both ongoing cases and completed asset returns. It documented approx. $8.2 billion in stolen funds that had been either frozen, adjudicated, or returned to affected countries since 1980. However, due to a lack of regular country reporting, these figures are not comprehensive and do not represent all gains from corruption that have been frozen or returned worldwide.

In 2021, StAR launched its newly re-designed website https://star.worldbank.org/. Due to the re-design, the ARW database had to be taken offline. The company which re-designed the website is currently finalizing a re-design of the ARW database. The new database will be presented to States parties during StAR Day at the tenth session of the Conference of States Parties (COSP) to the UNCAC in Atlanta in December 2023.

Qualifications/special skills

• High school diploma is required.
• A minimum of one (1) year of professional experience in law, rule of law or similar area is required;
• Familiarity with open-source research methods, including legal and news databases, as well as proficiency in Microsoft Excel and knowledge of statistics software (SPSS) are required;
• Excellent legal research, proven attention to detail, drafting skills and excellent verbal and written communication skills are required;
• Knowledge of and experience in anti-corruption and asset recovery, specifically in policy or legal research on these or on related topics is desirable;
• Previous experience with the United Nations as well as familiarity with the work of the UNODC are desirable.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) 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.