Call for Legal Advisor (External Consultant)
Transparency International Portugal (TI Portugal) is seeking to hire an external legal advisor to support the implementation of the EC funded project ‘SAFE for Whistleblowers (Strengthening and Fostering Enabling Environment for Whistleblowers in the EU)’.
TI Portugal integrates a consortium led by Transparency International Secretariat with eight other beneficiaries/partners in the Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Slovakia, and have been awarded EC funding to co-implement the two-year project, ‘SAFE for Whistleblowers (Strengthening and Fostering Enabling Environment for Whistleblowers in the EU)’ to support the establishment of an enabling environment for the protection of whistleblowers. It will contribute to enhancing transparency and accountability, the enforcement of the EU and national law, and the application of the EU Charter for Fundamental Rights, and ultimately to strengthening the protection of EU values and respect for the rule of law.
The project aims to tackle five sets of challenges, including (i) lack of awareness and trust in reporting channels and whistleblower protection, (ii) lack of capacity of civil society, public, and private organisations in correctly implementing the rules applying to them, (iii) lack of available data to assess the effectiveness of whistleblowing laws, (iv) lack of knowledge and capacity of competent authorities and judges to coherently implement and enforce whistleblower protection laws, and (v) risks of incoherence in implementation, impacting the Whistleblowing Directive’s effectiveness.
Role Description
In close liaison with the project’s team and under the supervision of TI Portugal’s Board of Directors and an Advisory Board, the external consultant to be hired will be responsible for assisting the project’s implementation, in compliance with the work packages’ description and all applicable rules and guidelines.
In concrete, TI Portugal expects the Legal Advisor to deliver the following products/activities:
- Conduct surveys of targeted Local Authorities (using questions from the model Internal Whistleblowing Systems – IWS – questionnaire being developed, as well as from other examples of TI chapters), to understand capacity gaps and challenges faced by these entities to properly implement the Directive and administer effective IWS, and to identify good practices;
- Produce a Policy Brief directed to Local Authorities with recommendations to properly implement the Directive and administer effective IWS;
- Produce recommendations to improve the effectiveness of national legislation on whistleblower protection and its compliance with the Directive;
- Assist the development of training materials and a train-the-trainer programme on how to implement an effective IWS in line with the EU Directive and best practices at the Local Government level, specifically, a Roadmap and an e-learning course for Local Authorities in Portugal;
- Assist the organization of webinars and workshops for Local Authorities in Portugal;
- Assist the consortium in the development of common indicators to record/collect gender-disaggregated data on whistleblowers’ reports and cases of retaliation received by public and private organisations and by competent authorities;
- Attend project meetings and events.
Application Process
Applicants are required to submit an expression of interest that should include mandatorily:
- A detailed CV (in ENG)
- A Motivation Letter (in ENG)
- Documents supporting the candidate’s CV: relevant experience in working with whistleblowing protection legislation; relevant knowledge and experience in working with local authorities / professional and academic competence in Law /reference projects, etc.
Applications should be sent to [email protected]
Subject of the email: Application_SAFE4WB_LegalAdvisor_Name
Application deadline: October 31st, 2024
Please access the Terms of Reference for further details: https://transparencia.pt/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/SAFE4WB_ToR_Legal-Advisor-1.pdf