Location: Bogota, Colombia
The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is one of the world's leading humanitarian NGOs, working in more than 40 countries to support refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people, returnees and migrants. DRC has worked in Colombia since 2011 and expanded its operations in 2018 in response to the Venezuelan crisis.
The Legal Assistance Specialist is part of the regional ProLAC team. ProLAC is an ECHO-funded initiative that runs a harmonised protection monitoring system to provide up-to-date protection analysis for humanitarian response and advocacy in Latin America, and supports its partners in building protection analysis capacity. The Specialist will ensure that a legal approach is built into ProLAC's protection analysis, strengthen the integration of legal assistance into its analytical products, design and deliver legal training for ProLAC partners, and provide technical support to partner organisations running legal assistance programmes. The role also produces regional legal assistance bulletins and prepares legal inputs for regional and international human rights mechanisms. The Specialist works closely with the ProLAC Coordinator, the Analysis Specialist and the Advocacy Advisor, and with the Capacity Strengthening team.
Key responsibilities:
- Analysis: contribute legal assistance inputs to ProLAC analysis products; produce regular regional legal assistance needs analyses using the Legal Aid Analytical Framework (LAAF); monitor changes in legal and regulatory frameworks on international protection, migration, internal displacement and access to justice in Latin America; analyse legislation, policy and case law to identify trends, risks and opportunities.
- Capacity strengthening: advise and support implementing partners to improve the quality of their legal assistance activities and adopt a rights-based approach; design and deliver legal training for partners.
- Advocacy: contribute to ProLAC's Regional Advocacy Plan from a legal and human rights perspective; draft position papers and technical notes; lead submissions to calls for inputs from UN Special Rapporteurs, treaty bodies and the Inter-American Human Rights System.
- Take part in ProLAC's Technical Committee when required.
Requirements:
- At least 3 years of experience in humanitarian protection and/or legal assistance projects.
- Demonstrated experience analysing legal frameworks on forced displacement, human mobility, international protection and access to justice.
- Strong knowledge of International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law and Refugee Law, and of the UN and Inter-American human rights systems.
- Experience in protection analysis and Protection Information Management (PIM); familiarity with the Protection Analytical Framework (PAF) and LAAF.
- Experience designing and delivering capacity-strengthening training using adult learning methods.
- Postgraduate degree (master's or equivalent), preferably in Law, International Human Rights Law, International Law or Refugee Law; relevant experience may substitute.
- Fluent Spanish and advanced English, spoken and written.
Offer: national fixed-term (obra o labor) contract in Colombia with full statutory benefits; salary starting at COP 7,018,000 depending on experience; 100% employer-paid prepaid health coverage; access to more than 1,000 free online trainings and certificates; start date August 2026.
Closing date: 2026-09-28
HOW TO APPLY:
Apply online via the DRC application portal. Upload only a one-page cover letter and an updated CV (maximum 3 pages); no other supporting documents are accepted. Applications close 28 September 2026 at 11:59 am local time. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and DRC may close the vacancy early once a suitable candidate is identified.
https://candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationInit.aspx?cid=1036&ProjectId=176393&DepartmentId=19128&MediaId=5&SkipAdvertisement=true