The Associate Director in the Legal Strategies, Innovation and Research unit works with staff across the Center to ensure technical excellence and coherency in the Centre’s strategic litigation, innovation in legal strategies and research.  The Associate Director will collaborate closely with the Center’s regional units on developing litigation strategies to build norms on sexual and reproductive health and rights and hold states accountable for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) violations.  The Associate Director will also help facilitate the development of institutional legal principles on key SRHR issues; pioneer new legal theories on SRHR protections under international and regional human rights laws; and contribute to thought leadership on new and emerging issues.  

The ideal candidate for this role will be a skilled human rights litigator with demonstrated senior level expertise working globally within multiple legal systems, extensive experience working in UN and/or regional human rights bodies and expertise on reproductive rights, gender justice, and/or health rights. Candidates must have significant experience developing and pursuing cases before regional and/or United Nations human rights bodies and working across several legal systems or regions.  

Contingent on compliance with local labor laws, this position can be based in any of the Center’s offices or be fully remote. 

Fluency in Spanish is required. Other languages are a plus. 

The role will be based in a Center office (NYC, Washington D.C., Bogota, Geneva, or Nairobi). Covid-19 vaccination is required for all US-based employees of the Center. 

Primary Responsibilities

Working closely with the Senior Director of Global Legal Strategies, this person will: 

• Provide technical support to regional teams in the development of legal strategies and new legal theories for defensive and proactive litigation. 
• Scope potential new innovations in how the Center enhances legal accountability for reproductive rights violations, including the exploration of legal mechanisms beyond UN and regional human rights systems.  

• Facilitate the development, dissemination, and integration/alignment with Center-wide positions on key and emerging legal issues through collaborative and participatory processes involving staff from across the globe.  
• Stay up to date with reproductive rights litigation and human rights litigation with high impact in the field of reproductive rights, as well as relevant emerging reproductive rights issues; identify opportunities for the Center to contribute to the development of emerging legal norms. 

• Identify opportunities to enhance internal knowledge and skills on litigation and facilitate opportunities for staff to share best practices and lessons learned.  
• Represent the Center externally, including with key partners, donors, media, academic and professional audiences.  

Qualifications

• A degree in law
• At least 12 years of relevant work experience, including extensive litigation experience particularly before international and/or regional human rights bodies and within or across several legal systems.
• Demonstrated senior level expertise working globally with international organisations across multiple legal systems; developing impact litigation, including conceptualizing cases, developing strong evidence bases, working directly with clients, drafting legal filings, and implementing impact litigation decisions/outcomes.
• Experience working on human rights/women’s rights, reproductive rights and/or in the social justice sector
• A track record of working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders to achieve common goals
• A demonstrated ability to adapt to change and manage and prioritize a diverse workload;
• Solutions-oriented approach with strong analytical/reasoning skills.