Position of Senior Legal Officer, Refugee Legal Aid Project of the Egyptian
Organisation of Human Rights (EOHR), from August 1, 2003

Our office is presently seeking a Senior Legal Officer, to begin on August 1
2003.  In the past the Senior Legal Officer has been hired on the basis of a
one-year contract.

Founded in 2000, The Refugee Legal Aid Project of the Egyptian Organisation
for Human Rights (EOHR) provides pro bono legal representation for
asylum-seekers throughout the process of refugee status determination in
Cairo.  Cairo presently has the third highest concentration of urban
refugees in the world and the process of refugee-determination is presently
conducted on behalf of the Egyptian government by the UNHCR.

The office presently employs three full-time Egyptian lawyers, two full-time
support staff, and an office administrator, in addition to some 15 volunteer
case-workers from all over the world.  The office is led by the Senior Legal
Officer, who has overall responsibility for case-work, office management,
staff evaluation, writing reports, the selection and training of incoming
case-workers, and liaising with the UNHCR and other relevant agencies in the
greater Cairo area.

The ideal candidate will have an excellent understanding of both the
domestic and international law relating to the determination of refugee
status, and proven case and office management skills.  Although this will
probably entail holding a law degree, candidates who lack a formal legal
qualification will be considered if they have a demonstrated expertise in
the field of refugee law, which might include graduate research and
publications in the field of refugee law.  Although presently under review,
remuneration is sufficient to support a single person living in Cairo.

The Senior Legal Officer will have a vigorous and well-defined sense of
proper case methodology for refugee determination, while being prepared to
work within tight time and resource constraints.  They will, therefore, be
capable of adjusting that methodology in a principled and rational fashion,
both in keeping with the resource constraints within our own office, and in
response to the changing constraints affecting the Cairo office of the
UNHCR.

Perhaps most importantly, the successful candidate will be temperamentally
suited to leading an extremely diverse office, which includes both foreign
and Egyptian lawyers, and legally and non-legally educated case-workers.
Our eventual goal is the transformation of our office from an NGO dominated
by ex-patriates, to one which is domestically sustainable and staffed
primarily by Egyptians.  The successful candidate will have a clear idea as
to how to achieve this transition, while maintaining the consistency of
practice and leadership within the office for all concerned.

As the ideal candidate will have both a strong academic background and
demonstrated management experience in a legal setting, this position is
ideally-suited for a practitioner or academic who has either taken early
retirement, or is in mid-career and desires a year-long sabbatical in a
clinical setting.

For further particulars and in application, please contact:

Professor Barbara Harrell-Bond
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Fax: +202 797-6629

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