Legal Aid
The Danish Council for Refugees (DRC) is one of the world’s main humanitarian NGOs, which works in more than 40 countries to provide adequate assistance with a rights -based approach to refugees, asylum applicants, internal displays, repatriated and migrants. DRC has been present in Colombia since 2011, but 2018 expands its operations in response to the Venezuelan crisis. Currently DRC Colombia implements a humanitarian response centered protection for refugees and Venezuelan and Colombian migrants returned in cities of Colombia such as Riohacha, Barranquilla and Bogotá, currently also incorporates activities in Nariño and Norte de Santander.
General description of the position:
Under the supervision of the Protection Management, the legal assistance officer is responsible for providing legal assistance services oriented to access to rights for the population of interest and implementing the activities of the legal assistance program in the defined intervention municipalities. When part of the North DRC Protection Unit of Santander, it implements the activities in accordance with the General Protection Strategy and the DRC Legal Aid Program. For this reason, it facilitates informative sessions on legal issues, advises the population of interest individually and manages legal cases at the individual, family or community level for access to rights. It will also participate in the other protection activities that are implemented in the defined intervention areas, within the framework of the joint actions of the unit, as required.
The position is based on the municipality of Cúcuta (northern Santander), with terrain activities in Tibú and Catatumbo, as required. The legal assistance officer must work regularly with people in need of international protection, with populations affected by the internal armed conflict and in a situation of vulnerability, so a high level of professionalism is expected, but also an understanding and sensitivity in humanitarian work.
It will develop and maintain good relations with people of interest, relevant stakeholders, institutional actors and humanitarian actors, which allows to properly facilitate and guarantee DRC protection activities. The importance of having teamwork skills is also highlighted.
It will contribute to guarantee the quality of planning, implementation and monitoring of protection activities in intervention municipalities.
Responsibilities:
- Implement the activities of the legal aid program in accordance with the protection strategy, the standard operating procedures (SOP), under the coordination of the Protection Management and with the technical accompaniment of the area’s specialist.
- Design and develop sensitization materials and strategies/dissemination of information on rights and care routes taking into account the information collected from the protection activities.
- Provide personalized advice to the population of interest.
- Manage individual or community cases for the access to the rights of the migrant population, refugee and victim of the armed conflict, as well as other cases of civil, constitutional and administrative law that require legal assistance, according to the SOP of legal assistance of DRC and the general objectives of the program. The above implies carrying the control and registration of the files, actions and, in general, of all the legal actions presented virtually or personally.
- Accompany and facilitate the access of the beneficiaries to the different state agencies, as necessary.
- Identify and value the protection risks faced by people, activating immediate responses and facilitating monitoring actions, such as reference to specialized services.
- Prepare and update the mapping of available actors and services, identifying new service offers and maintaining constant communication with humanitarian, community -based organizations and local authorities to complement the response to identified cases.
- Act as a focal point in the relationship with key community actors, facilitating mobilization, dissemination of key messages and acceptance of activities.
- Maintain good relationships with all people, which includes people of interest, relevant interested parties and other external actors, to support and facilitate the proper implementation of legal aid and protection activities.
- Support the Protection Management in the analysis of the needs of legal assistance, of trends, priorities and documentation of the cases of impact and/or favorable result for the Person (s) Participants for the elaboration of standard strategies and procedures that facilitate the implementation of legal assistance activities.
- Guarantee the transverse application of the principles of protection and the differential approach of age, gender, diversity and intersectionality in all actions, respecting confidentiality and informed consent.
- Collect, centralize and provide contextual information about the protection environment and the activities implemented in order to generate supplies for protection monitoring reports and reports aimed at donors (monthly, quarterly and annual).
- Perform protection monitoring work (especially, discussions of focus groups and interviews with key informants), as necessary.
- Collect and properly manage the information of people of interest, guaranteeing confidentiality, personal data protection, informed consent, and the timely and precise registration in the databases and information management systems of DRC, in accordance with internal procedures for the monitoring and report of cases and activities.
- Provide technical guidance to the protection team on legal issues, including the identification, management and derivation of legal assistance cases, ensuring the application of the guiding principles of legal aid.
- Provide advice and technical orientation to personnel in the position of legal assistance assistant, when applied.
- Contribute to the development and contextualization of methodologies, protocols and technical tools.
- Participate in coordination spaces and inter -institutional work tables at the local level, as required.
- Coordinate the logistics and administrative management of legal assistance activities, in accordance with the internal DRC procedures and the operational needs in the implementation.
- Maintain constant communication and coordination with protection management and technical team, to ensure efficient planning and guarantee the quality and coherence of protection interventions in intervention municipalities, in line with the general strategy and the current or proposed projects.
- Participate in the implementation of general protection activities in accordance with the agreed objectives and the identified needs.
- Actively participate in team meetings and technical monitoring spaces with the area specialist, as well as in training and feedback processes, providing inputs, challenges and lessons learned to strengthen the quality of legal aid and protection actions.
- Other assigned functions that are considered necessary for the execution of the position.
Experience and Technical Competencies:
- Lawyer/or with experience in constitutional law, refugee law, human rights, international humanitarian law.
- Demonstrable experience in definition of legal strategy, cases and litigation.
- Profiles will be prioritized with knowledge about the National legal framework for attention and repair to victims of the armed conflict in Colombia.
- Minimum 2 years of relevant experience of humanitarian work in legal aid. Desirable experience with victims of the armed conflict, with institutions of the National System of Integral Attention and Reparation to the victims – Snariv, NGOs or other non -profit organization.
- Knowledge of the context and the humanitarian situation of the department of Norte de Santander.
- Work experience with refugees, migrants, victims of internal armed conflict and ethnic communities.
- Excellent relational communication skills and conflict resolution (empathy, active listening, assertiveness, sensitivity, teamwork, respect for cultural beliefs, customs and traditions)
- Optimal writing skills reports and in oral and written communication.
- High professional ethics.
- Skills for relationship with public institutions, NGOs and the population of interest.
- Quiet and diplomatic.
- Working experience with national or international NGOs is an advantage.
- MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint skill
Requirements in terms of academic training and technical knowledge:
- Undergraduate in law.
Languages:
- Spanish (mandatory)
- Written comprehension of English language (it is an advantage)
All DRC functions require the owner to dominate the basic DRC skills:
- Achieve excellence: focus on achieving results and guaranteeing efficient processes
- Collaboration: Involve the relevant parties and encourage feedback
- Take the initiative: take possession and initiative while looking for innovation
- Communicate: Listen and speak effectively and honestly
- Integrity demonstration: Act according to the vision and values of DRC
We offer:
- The opportunity to belong to one of the best NGOs worldwide.
- Access to more than 1,000 training and free -line certificates.
- Prepaid medicine, 100% coverage of the policy for the employee and special price for
- Benefites.
- National Labor Work Contract (for the time that the work/labor lasts)
- Salary starting at $ 3,475,000 according to the experience and competencies of the candidate.
- Start date: August 2025
- Salary and conditions according to the terms of employment in Colombia.
Application process: All applicants must upload only a submission letter (1 page) and a residue sheet (which does not exceed 3 pages) no more supports are received by this medium.
Application closure date: July 21, 2025 at 11:59 am local time.
Use 1: The applicant who applies to this call authorizes DRC to validate the personal information provided in the resume. Its identification will be proven in the public and private databases with the exclusive use of validating the information, according to our anti -fraud policies, money laundering and terrorist financing.
Use 2: The applicant who in a free and voluntary way wish to be part of the selection process to occupy the position of this call, must observe a strict adherence to the norms that apply for the subject (suitability in the titles presented, execution of tests of personally and individual and truthfulness in the information) adhere to the anti -fraud manuals and policies of DRC Irregularity in the opinion of the organization, even for mere suspicion, and even in possible criminal behaviors according to Colombian legislation.
