Lawyer, European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) 

£45,153 - £51,914 per annum (including Outer London Weighting)
LAW125
Full Time
Fixed Term

This is a unique opportunity to work at the cutting edge of international human rights litigation.

About EHRAC

Based at Middlesex University's School of Law, EHRAC works with NGOs and lawyers in the post-Soviet region to bring ground-breaking, strategic international human rights cases. We have taken more than 300  cases to the  European Court of Human Rights, and UN mechanisms, against Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. We have litigated a series of egregious human rights abuse cases from Chechnya, and have won landmark judgments such as the widely reported Beslan School terror siege (Tagayeva v Russia, ECtHR, BBC coverage), the first domestic violence case against Georgia (X and Y v Georgia, CEDAW), the first case concerning the politically motivated prosecution of a human rights defender (Rasul Jafarov v Azerbaijan, ECtHR), and the unlawfulness of Russia's surveillance laws (Zakharov v Russia, ECtHR, Open Democracy coverage). Our cases include violations stemming from conflict in Chechnya, Eastern Ukraine (Guardian coverage), Crimea, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Nagorno-Karabakh; gender-based violence, including femicide; LGBT+ discrimination, and repression of civil society (New York Times coverage). 

We litigate in close partnership with NGOs and lawyers from the former Soviet Union, through a unique and sustained mentoring model of collaboration and support. We also hold training and awareness-building events in the UK, Strasbourg, and our target region. 

We are looking for a new lawyer to:

1. litigate international human rights cases before the European Court of Human Rights, and UN mechanisms, in partnership with NGOs and lawyers from our region. In line with EHRHAC's mentoring model, to provide our partner lawyers with substantial litigation support and to undertake advocacy, training and legal advisory/drafting work as appropriate.

2. provide legal information and expertise to EHRAC's programme team in order to ensure the accuracy and consistency of EHRAC publications, funding applications and reports to funders, as well as to facilitate the management of case documents. 

This position requires someone who is qualified to practise as a lawyer in one of the Council of Europe States and has professional post-qualification litigation and case management experience. 

Our case work arises from a number of different domestic jurisdictions and covers a broad range of human rights issues. The post therefore requires a good understanding of international human rights law, the practice of the European Court of Human Rights and UN mechanisms.

The ideal candidate will have experience of delivering training/capacity-building work at individual and group level.

For further information including a full job description and instructions on how to apply please visit https://jobs.mdx.ac.uk/LAW125

Please direct queries to ehrac@mdx.ac.uk

Closing date: 1 December 2019