Associate Protection Officer

Deadline for ApplicationsMarch 9, 2026

Hardship LevelE (most hardship)

Family TypeNon Family with Residential Location

Family TypeNon Family with Residential Location

Residential location (if applicable)

Addis Ababa,Eth Fed Dem Rep

GradePR2

Staff Member / Affiliate TypeProfessional

ReasonRegular > Regular Assignment

Target Start Date2026-02-06

Standard Job Description

Associate Protection Officer

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

The Associate Protection Officer reports to the Protection Officer or the Senior Protection Officer. Depending on the size and structure of the Office, the incumbent may have supervisory responsibility for protection staff, including community-based protection registration, resettlement and education. S/he provides functional protection guidance to information management and programme staff on all protection/legal matters and accountabilities. These include: statelessness (in line with the campaign to End Statelessness by 2024), Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) commitments, age, gender, diversity (AGD) and accountability to affected populations (AAP) through community-based protection, Child protection, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention and response, gender equality, disability inclusion, youth empowerment, psycho-social support and PSEA, registration, asylum/refugee status determination, resettlement, local integration, voluntary repatriation, human rights standards integration, national legislation, judicial engagement, predictable and decisive engagement in situations of internal displacement and engagement in wider mixed movement and climate change/disaster-related displacement responses. S/he supervises protection standards, operational procedures and practices in protection delivery in line with international standards.

The Associate Protection Officer is expected to coordinate quality, timely and effective protection responses to the needs of forcibly displaced and stateless persons, ensuring that operational responses in all sectors mainstream protection methodologies and integrate protection safeguards. The incumbent contributes to the design of a comprehensive protection strategy and represents the organization externally on protection doctrine and policy as guided by the supervisor. S/he also ensures that forcibly displaced and stateless persons are meaningfully engaged in the decisions that affect them and support programme design and adaptations that are influenced by the concerns, priorities and capacities of forcibly displaced and stateless persons. To achieve this, the incumbent will need to build and maintain effective interfaces with communities of concern, authorities, protection and assistance partners as well as a broader network of stakeholders who can contribute to enhancing protection.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR's core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties

- Stay abreast of political, social, economic and cultural developments that have an impact on the protection environment.

- Promote International and National Law and applicable UN/UNHCR and IASC policy, standards and codes of conduct.

- Foster their consistent and coherent interpretation and application through mainstreaming in all sectors and /or in clusters in applicable operations.

- Assist in providing comments on existing and draft legislation related to forcibly displaced and stateless persons.

- Provide legal advice and guidance on protection issues to forcibly displaced and stateless persons; liaise with competent authorities to ensure the issuance of personal and other relevant documentation.

- Conduct eligibility and status determination for forcibly displaced and stateless persons in compliance with UNHCR procedural standards and international protection principles.

- Promote and contribute to measures to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness.

- Contribute to a country-level child protection plan as part of the protection strategy to ensure programmes use a child protection systems approach.

- Contribute to a country-level education plan.

- Implement and oversee Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all protection/solutions activities which integrate AGD sensitive procedures.

- Oversee and manage individual protection cases, including those on GBV and child protection. Monitor, and intervene in cases of refoulement, expulsion and other protection incidents through working relations with governments and other partners.

- Recommend durable solutions for the largest possible number of forcibly displaced and stateless persons through voluntary repatriation, local integration and where appropriate, resettlement.

- Assess resettlement needs and apply priorities for the resettlement of individuals and groups of refugees and other forcibly displaced and stateless persons.

- Participate in the organisation and implementation of participatory assessments and methodologies throughout the operations management cycle and promote AGD sensitive programming with implementing and operational partners.

- Contribute to and facilitate a programme of results-based advocacy through a consultative process with sectorial and/or cluster partners.

- Facilitate effective information management through the provision of disaggregated data on populations of concern and their problems.

- Promote and integrate community-based approaches to protection and contribute to capacity-building initiatives for communities and individuals to assert their rights.

- Support activities in the area of risk management related to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, fraud, case-processing, data protection, and human rights due diligence at country level.

- Participate in initiatives to capacitate national authorities, relevant institutions and NGOs to strengthen national protection related legislation and procedures.

- Intervene with authorities on protection issues.

- Negotiate locally on behalf of UNHCR.

- Decide priorities for reception, interviewing and counselling for groups or individuals.

- Enforce compliance of staff and implementing partners with global protection policies and standards of professional integrity in the delivery of protection services.

- Enforce compliance with, and integrity of, all protection standard operating procedures.

- Support the identification and management of risks and seek to seize opportunities impacting objectives in the area of responsibility. Ensure decision making in risk based in the functional area of work. Raise risks, issues and concerns to a supervisor or to relevant functional colleague(s).

- Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications

Years of Experience / Degree Level

For P2/NOB - 3 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 2 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 1 year relevant experience with Doctorate degree

Field(s) of Education

Law, International Law, Political Sciences or other relevant field

Certificates and/or Licenses

Not specified.

(Certificates and Licenses marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Relevant Job Experience

Essential

Professional experience in the area of refugee protection, internal displacement, human rights or international humanitarian law. Good knowledge of International Refugee and Human Rights Law and ability to apply the relevant legal principles.

Desirable

Field experience, including in working directly with communities. Good IT skills including database management skills.

Functional Skills

*PR-Protection-related guidelines, standards and indicators

*PR-Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD)

PR-Gender Based Violence (GBV) Coordination

MG-Project Management

PR-Human Rights Doctrine/Standards

PR-International Humanitarian Law

PR-Assessment of IDPs Status, Rights, Obligation

PR-Climate change and disaster related displacement

CO-Drafting and Documentation

(Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Language Requirements

For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.

For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.

For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.

All UNHCR workforce members must individually and collectively, contribute towards a working environment where each person feels safe, and empowered to perform their duties. This includes by demonstrating no tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment including sexual harassment, sexism, gender inequality, discrimination and abuse of power.

As individuals and as managers, all must be proactive in preventing and responding to inappropriate conduct, support ongoing dialogue on these matters and speaking up and seeking guidance and support from relevant UNHCR resources when these issues arise.

This is a Standard Job Description for all UNHCR jobs with this job title and grade level. The Operational Context may contain additional essential and/or desirable qualifications relating to the specific operation and/or position. Any such requirements are incorporated by reference in this Job Description and will be considered for the screening, shortlisting and selection of candidates.

Desired Candidate Profile Essential attributes:

• Prior experience in complex combination of field-based protection, policy and legislation, access to territory, registration, documentation, asylum procedures, access to justice, protection monitoring, route-based approaches, coordination in refugee contexts and management of partnerships.

• Experience in community-based protection, covering areas such as community engagement, communication with communities (CwC), gender-based violence (GBV), education and child protection

• Experience in inclusion to national social systems, strategic partnership programming and nexus approaches

• Proven coordination and leadership experience to ensure the effective functioning of the Protection Working Group and its sub-groups (GBV, Child Protection, Accountability to Affected Populations [AAP] and PSEA), joint needs assessments

Desirable attributes:

• Proficiency in protection programming would be a significant asset. To promote diversity within the operation, including geographic diversity, candidates from underrepresented nationalities in Chad operation are particularly encouraged to apply.

Required languages (expected Overall ability is at least B2 level): French

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Desired languages

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Operational context

Occupational Safety and Health Considerations:

To view occupational safety and health considerations for this duty station, please visit this link:

Nature of Position:

The armed conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began on April 15, 2023, continues to cause large-scale displacement of Sudanese civilians into Chad. Areas in Darfur—such as El Fasher, El Geneina, Nyala, and the Zamzam IDP camp have been particularly affected, with widespread violations of fundamental human rights, including denial of rights, arbitrary arrests, torture, physical and sexual violence, rape, extortion, and killings.

These displaced populations have arrived in eastern Chad in extremely vulnerable and precarious conditions. As of May 31, 2025, eastern Chad hosts 1,250,690 forcibly displaced persons, including 851,687 newly arrived Sudanese refugees. These refugees are spread across 21 formal and informal sites in four eastern provinces: Ouaddaï, Wadi Fira, Ennedi East, and Sila. The Sila province alone hosts 151,037 Sudanese refugees in the sites of Zabout (54,103), Goz Amir (46,326), Djabal (38,705), and Kerfi (11,903). Women make up 56% of this population, while men account for 46%. Among them, 87% are women and children.

In Sila, this forcibly displaced population faces various protection issues, in the above mentioned sites, including include the civilian and humanitarian character of the camps, limited access to justice, interethnic tensions (especially involving minority groups), gender-based violence, family tracing and reunification, civil documentation, potential exclusion risks, refugee status determination (RSD), education, health, child protection, community-based protection (CBP), and the search for durable solutions.

The current strategy aims to strengthen the protection of both refugees and host communities by reducing the risk of violence, ensuring equitable access to basic services, and promoting long-term integration. This requires protection staff with solid expertise to address the above needs.

Therefore, under the supervision of the protection officer and/or the Head office, depending on the office configuration, the incumbent may have supervisory responsibility for protection staff and S/he provides functional protection guidance/advice to management and all program colleagues on all protection/legal issues and accountabilities/responsibilities.

An effective protection response requires an integrated approach that combines life-saving humanitarian activities, inclusive projects targeting both refugee and host communities, and initiatives promoting peaceful coexistence.

The incumbent will play a leadership role in ensuring that coordination mechanisms function in line with UNHCR standards, while fostering the engagement of other actors, refugee and host communities, provincial delegations, local authorities, and grassroots organizations.

He/she will exercise leadership to ensure the effective functioning of the Protection Working Group and its sub-groups (GBV, Child Protection, Accountability to Affected Populations [AAP] and PSEA), joint needs assessments, and timely reporting on the response of various actors;

Will Lead advocacy efforts to mobilize interventions from other stakeholders to improve the multisectoral protection response and Maintain strong collaboration with all stakeholders—particularly local, administrative, and traditional authorities—is essential.

Living and Working Conditions:

Candidates applying to positions in Chad should be prepared to work under challenging conditions and be able to manage stressful situations. All the duty stations in Chad are classified E, except N’Djamena which is at D.

In terms of working and living conditions, Goz Beida is a small town that has only very basic infrastructure with very limited leisure and recreational facilities. There are no banking facilities in Goz Beida. The nearest bank facility is in Abeche where ATMs are also operational. Malaria is prevalent and all staff need to be vigilant by taking the relevant measures. Goz Beida is an E non-family location. There are also very limited health facilities available locally.

Finding good accommodations in Goz Beida remains a challenge. Therefore, UNHCR managed guest houses provide and facilitate accommodation to UNHCR staff.

All communications within the office and with external partners such as Government and humanitarian agencies are conducted in French. Fluent French (both written and spoken) is essential for this position. However, working knowledge of English, especially written, is also required as reports, internal as well as external, are requested in English.

While security in Goz Beida is, at