Legal Officer at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Responsibilities

• Handles a range of issues related to environmental law, such as environmental rule of law, the progressive development of international environmental law, human rights and the environment, or environmental crime (substantive, procedural and comparative).
• Conducts extensive legal research and analysis in the field of international environmental law and prepares studies, briefs, reports and correspondence.
• Undertakes basic or extensive review of legal documents, instruments, or other material; identifies important issues, similarities, and inconsistencies.
• Prepares or assists in the preparation of drafts of background papers, studies, reports, legislative texts and commentaries on those texts, teaching materials in the field of international environmental law.
• Prepares or assists in the preparation of legal opinions/advice on a wide range of international environmental law issues.
• Provides legal advice on the interpretation and application of international environmental law.
• Services or assists senior colleagues in servicing diplomatic conferences, commissions, committees, task forces, expert groups and other bodies, including preparation of background materials, summaries of issues and views of delegations, meeting reports.
• Prepares or assists in the preparation of agreements and contracts with governments, NGOs and other public and private entities.
• Administers programmes of legal technical assistance.
• Prepares or assists with the preparation of international environmental law seminars and symposia, lecture on various legal issues at such events.
• Provides guidance to more junior staff.
• Collects and analyzes data to identify trends or patterns and provide insights through graphs, charts, tables and reports using data visualization methods to enable data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Education

• An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in international law, environmental law or related fields is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Successful completion of both degree and non-degree programs in data analytics, business analytics or data science programs is desirable.

Work Experience

• A minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in environmental law, project or programme management, administration or related area in the environmental field is required. Experience working at the international level in environmental law is desirable.
• Two (2) years or more of experience in data analytics or related area is desirable.