Organizational Context
Ethiopia has a long-standing history of hosting refugees and continues to be a safe haven for over 680,861 refugees who fled their home. The Government of Ethiopia provides protection to refugees from some 20 countries, with the majority originating from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan respectively. The Government of Ethiopia maintains an open-door policy for refugee inflows into the country. In close cooperation with UNHCR, it allows humanitarian access and protection to those seeking asylum on its territory.
On 19 September 2016, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants, calling for greater burden sharing by the international community to support the world’s largest refugee hosting states. A day after the adoption of the New York Declaration, the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees was held. On that event, the Government of Ethiopia made nine Pledges to provide more opportunities for refugees in the country such as employment, documentation, local integration and access to services in a spirit of global solidarity and in line with the fundamental principles of international refugee law and human rights. The successful implementation of the pledges and the CRRF required a favourable policy and legal framework. As a result, the House of People’s Representative repealed the previous refugee Proc. No. 409/2004 with the New Refugee Proclamation, Proc. No. 1110/2019. Further, Ethiopia is a party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and its 1967 Protocol and the 1969 OAU Convention. Thus, refugee protection in Ethiopia is provided within the framework of these international and national refuge laws as well as the core international human rights treaties that have been ratified by the country.
In addition, the Government of Ethiopia has taken the task of preparing the National Comprehensive Refugee Response Strategy that has a ten-year time frame within which it foresees to make significant progress towards transforming the lives of refugees and host communities. The strategy will be followed by the preparation of National Action plans, National Implementation Guidelines followed by Regional Action Plans and Guidelines curtailed to the context of each Regional States. The strategy and accompanying action plan and guidelines shall be the documents that will guide refugee protection and assistance for the coming ten years in Ethiopia. Against this background, UNHCR is hiring Protection Associate with the dedicated role of supporting the proper implementation of the New Refugee Proclamation and the National Comprehensive Refugee Response Strategy with the view of mainstreaming the Global Compact on Refugees in protection activities.
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Essential Minimum Qualification and Professional Experience required