National Consultant to Conduct a Legislative Review Related to Children’s Rights in the Maldives

The Maldives has made significant progress on the child rights agenda and is now a leader in the South Asia region. The country provides universal access to health and education and very low maternal and child mortality. The enactment of the Child Rights Protection Act (Law No: 19/2019) and the Juvenile Justice Act (Law No: 18/2019) further strengthened the legislative framework to safeguard children’s rights, by defining the child as anyone below the age of 18 years and establishing the minimum age of criminal responsibility at 15 years. These advances are in line with international best practices and treaties including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which the Maldives is a signatory.

However, children are treated differently across different legislation. For example, the Anti-Terrorism Act allows children under 15 years to be held in administrative detention, while the Juvenile Justice Act establishes the MACR at 15 years and hence no child under 15 can be placed in detention.

To better understand these discrepancies and address them, UNICEF Maldives is seeking a national legal consultant to conduct a comprehensive review of the national legislative frameworks. The consultant will be tasked with analyzing how children are defined and examine variations in their treatment across different contexts.

Objectives:

• The legislative review should achieve the following
• Conduct a systemic analysis of how various national legislative frameworks define and treat children.
• Identify the duties and obligations of the State in relation to children as specified in different legislation.
• Identify any inconsistencies and contradictory provisions in different legislation relating to children.
• Assess any upcoming legislation, policies or programmes that may potentially contravene children’s rights.
• Provide recommendations for any legal amendments, as required, to improve legal coherence and effectiveness in matters relating to children.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

Academic qualifications:

• Master’s Degree (or higher) in Law (LLM), Public Policy, Human Rights, International Law or a related field, OR;
• Bachelor’s Degree in Law (LLB) with extensive experience in legislative analysis.

Knowledge, skills, and experience:

• Minimum 8 years of experience (if with a Master’s Degree) OR minimum 10 years of experience (if with a Bachelor’s Degree) in legal research, legislative drafting or policy analysis.
• Strong knowledge of the Maldivian legal system and child rights frameworks.
• Knowledge of international human rights standards.

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/580101