IPHR is recruiting an open source researcher to join our team investigating war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious human rights abuses being committed in the context of Russia’s war on Ukraine. As part of the team you will contribute to establishing a historical record of atrocities committed against the Ukrainian people and help ensure that strategies for achieving accountability and justice have the greatest chance of success.
Who we are
International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) is an independent, non-governmental organisation founded in 2008. Based in Brussels, with a second office in Tbilisi, IPHR works closely with civil society groups from a range of countries to raise human rights concerns at the international level and promote respect for the rights of vulnerable communities. IPHR acts to empower local civil society groups working to advance the protection of human rights in their respective countries and helps them raise human rights concerns at the international level. In cooperation with partner organisations, IPHR advocates on behalf of individuals and communities who are among those most vulnerable to discrimination, injustice, and human rights violations. IPHR has a long history of documenting war crimes and other human rights abuses, including in Ukraine, where IPHR set up a field mission in 2014. Since then, IPHR has contributed to investigations in the Donbas, Crimea, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Belarus, with an increasing focus on digital open source investigation.
Building partnerships is the cornerstone of our work. In our cooperation with local partners, we always strive to establish partnerships that are based on equality and mutual respect, while being responsive to the needs of our local partners and helping them address pressing human rights concerns and make their voices heard internationally. We are driven by a strong commitment to promoting human rights and advancing the mission of our organisation for the benefit of individuals and communities across our target countries. We always carry out our mandate in an independent and impartial way, take responsibility for our work, and demonstrate accountability to our donors, partners, and others with whom we collaborate.
Who you are
Since you will be processing data to make it more accessible for analysis and use by lawyers, the ideal candidate will have exhibit clarity of thought and ability be able to keep the bigger picture and accountability goals in mind at all times. This work will require you to work with large amounts of raw data, so you’ll need experience with databases and a proven ability to structure and organise data in formats suitable for future analysis and processing.
You must be open-minded individual, who’s prepared to learn quickly and share your knowledge with and train others. You will strive to optimise and improve existing processes. You should be aware that the nature of the content you and the rest of the time will handle may often be upsetting or disturbing. For this reason, it is important that you exhibit the qualities of emotional stability and maturity.
Responsibilities
- Monitoring a broad range of open sources based in Ukraine and internationally in search of evidence of atrocities, war crimes, and other abuses;
- Processing and archiving collected evidence to ensure that data is stored correctly and can be readily accessed for further analysis;
- Carrying out targeted investigations relating to specific war crimes and other human rights violations and providing support to the accountability team in their efforts to mobilise collected evidence to achieve justice;
- Producing regular reports relating to collected evidence.
Skills and Experience
- You must be a results-oriented and logical thinker, committed to the values of universal human rights and democracy;
- You must have a proven ability to effectively and efficiently conduct open source research and investigation;
- Fluency in both English and Ukrainian is a necessity, while Russian language skills are also preferable;
- You must demonstrate a strong sense of judgment and discretion when evaluating and disseminating information;
- Familiarity with and experience of producing interactive data visualisations is preferred.
How to apply
Interested candidates are invited to apply by sending a CV and accompanying cover letter, by 15 June 2022, to the attention of:
Recruiting Committee – Open Source Researcher