VACANCY: HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCH POSITIONS

South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR), Hong Kong invites applications for the following positions under its research project “Understanding Impunity: Failures and Possibilities of Rights to Truth, Justice, and Reparation”, focusing on South Asia, to be based at its Kathmandu office and regional field researchers to be based in Gujarat, Kashmir, Punjab and the Northeast.

Position: Senior Research Associate (one)

Responsibilities:

  • To coordinate the field and the desk research on human rights atrocities and the state of impunity in India and to develop a framework for the restitution of rights to truth, justice and reparation;
  • Assist Programme Director in designing research methodologies and tools.
  • Direct supervision of regional coordinators in India
  • Compiling of information that comes in from the field
  • Producing reports and data analysis as required
  • Travel to field sites as and when necessary
  • Assisting the Programme Director and Project Coordinator in organising workshops, meetings and symposiums

Qualifications:

  • A Masters Degree in social sciences, thorough understanding of domestic and international human rights and humanitarian law norms;

Experience:

  • Must be acquainted with the histories and experiences of conflict in Gujarat, Kashmir, northeastern States and Punjab; and,
  • Must have at least three years of experience in researching and writing on the issues of human rights, conflicts, justice, governance and the rule of law.
  • Fluent in speaking and writing English, comfortable in at least one Indian regional language, in addition to Hindi, and ready to travel in all the four aforementioned regions of India.

Duty station: Kathmandu with frequent field visit.

Approximate gross salary: INR 28,000 /-

Position: Assistant Research Associate (one)

Responsibilities:

  • To primarily lead the desk research and the literature survey on truth, justice and reparation issues.;
  • to develop annotated summaries of the literature surveyed including specialized journals; and
  • to assist in other research related activities as required.

Qualifications:

  • Candidate must have a Masters Degree in social sciences, commitment and aptitude for human rights research and good command over English. Must be proficient in the use of computers, word processing, spreadsheet and data analysis packages.

Experience:

  • One year in direct research based work on human rights and/or social issues

Approximate gross salary: INR 17,000 /- (based in Kathmandu)

Duty station: Kathmandu

Position: Web Administrator and Office Assistant (one)

Responsibilities:

  • To develop and administer an interactive website; and,
  • to share administrative and financial management responsibilities under the project coordinator.

Qualifications:

  • Bachelor Degree in Information Technology or B. Com with IT proficiency;
  • minimum one year experience in the same field;
  • fluency in English and Nepali.

Duty station: Kathmandu

Approximate gross salary: INR 14,000 /-

Position: Regional Field Researcher (Four – only Indian nationals)

Responsibilities:

  • Candidates will have to possess a thorough understanding of the regional histories of conflict, human rights atrocities and struggles for justice and reparation.
  • must be proficient in collecting and compiling data on human rights violations in objective and standardized formats, their digitalization and transfer into computer databases;
  • must be able to conduct field interviews with the victims of abuses, officials, and civil society actors under strict ethical standards and in capturing and analyzing media narratives, parliamentary discussions, scholarly literature and judicial proceedings dealing with the events of human rights abuses, their contexts, the issues of effective remedy and redress of wrongs.

Duty stations: Gujarat, Kashmir, Punjab and the Northeast with frequent field visit.

Approximate gross salary: INR 17,000 /-

All applicants must be proficient in the use of computers, word processing, spreadsheets. Research based positions must have additional knowledge and experience in use of data analysis packages.

Deadline for application for all positions: 10 January 2008

Short-listed candidates for Kathmandu based positions will be interviewed by a selection panel at New Delhi and at Kathmandu in the third week of January 2008.

Short-listed candidates regional positions in India will be interviewed by a selection panel at one of the regional headquarters in Ahmadabad, Chandigarh, Gauhati and Sri Nagar in the second half of January 2008).

The contract will be on one year basis with possibility of two renewals for Kathmandu based personnel. Interested candidates should visit www.safhr.org to learn more about the program and apply before 10 January 2008 with CV, photo, covering letter explaining research interests and experience and names of two referees to vacancy@safhr.org

South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)
Patan Dhoka, Lalitpur
G. P. O. Box 12855
Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel: 977-1-5541026
Fax: 977-1-5527852
E-mail: south@safhr.org
website: www.safhr.org