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Richard Clarke - Human Rights Career Series
Advice:
My University marks were nothing extraordinary, about a Credit average, a few Distinctions, a few Passes. The optional subjects I studies were focussed on international law: International Law, Human Rights, International Arbitration, etc.
While at University I decided that I wanted to work as a HR lawyer with the UN. I was not sure what that implied exactly but it sounded fun and fulfilling. The strategy I have employed from the beginning, however, has been not to expect to find the perfect job from the get go. Rather, to accumulate experience and with each job change to inch my way towards the ideal job as I see it, although this changes as one changes.
I knew that initially I had to get experience in the field and another language so my time with the NGOs in Guatemala was very helpful. With a couple of years experience and Spanish I was then in a position to realistically apply for a job with the UN. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (‘OHCHR’) did not have a presence in Guatemala, but there was a monitoring mission there so I applied for that. The important thing was to get UN experience and then manoeuvre within the system. After working with the monitoring mission for a while I learned that the OHCHR was opening an Office in Colombia. There were no openings with them, but United Nations High Commission for Refugees (‘UNHCR’) was looking for people so I applied with them and moved to Colombia with an eye on an OHCHR position at a later date. Eventually an opening appeared with OHCHR and I was strategically in the right place at the right time and passed to OHCHR. And 3 years later, here I am.
Lessons learned: patience, planning and dogged determination in the face of inevitable periods of feeling like you'll never get there.
Below are extracts from my current Curriculum Vitae.
Education:
- Bachelor of Arts, Monash University, 1995
- Bachelor of Laws, Monash University, 1995
- Master of Law, Australian National University, 1997
Languages:
My mother tongue is English; second languages are Spanish (fluent) and Mandarin.
Current Employment:
Human Rights Office, United Nations Office of the High Commission for Human Rights, August 2001 to present
I am currently employed as a Human Rights Officer with the OHCHR in its sub-regional office in Medellín, Colombia. The tasks I perform are the following:
I monitor the human rights and IHL situation in the geographic area assigned to me. To that end, I receive from the general public, NGOs and other sources, complaints and other information regarding human rights violations and breaches of IHL. I carry out field missions to gather information on situations and particular cases. I represent the Office in meetings with authorities, NGOs, church representatives, representatives of the international community etc. I contribute to the Office’s annual, monthly and weekly reports and maintain contacts with civil, military and police authorities as well as civil society as regards situations and cases of human rights violations and breaches of IHL.
Equally, I enter and maintain cases in the Office’s human rights database regarding my geographic area. After receiving the complaint, I conduct legal analysis and enter the information and analysis in the database. I accumulate and enter follow-up information regarding cases deemed a priority for the Office. I write communications to the Government, expressing concern and recommending actions regarding these cases.
I also provide training on human rights and IHL to the police in my geographic area and give talks to authorities, NGOs and other sectors of civil society regarding the mandate and work of the Office.
Previous Employment:
- Field Officer (United Nations Volunteer Specialist), United Nations High Commission for Refugees, January 200 to July 2001
I worked as a Field Officer with UNHCR in Barrancabermeja, Colombia. Consonant with UNHCR’s mandate in Colombia, my duties were directed at the implementation of UNHCR’s Operational Plan for the attention of the Internally Displaced Population in the Magdalena Medio region.
I monitored the situation of internal displacement in the region, analysed displacement trends and reported regularly to the head office in Bogota on pertinent developments. As well as presenting workshops to the Red de Solidaridad Social (state institution charged with the attention of IDPs) on Emergency Assistance, I monitored the attention provided by the state to IDPs and recommended appropriate actions when necessary.
I represented UNHCR regularly in meetings of Municipal Committees for the Attention of IDPs as well as various other inter-institutional forums. I also represented UNHCR in official meetings with local authorities, NGOs and the Armed Forces and maintained a co-ordinating role between government authorities, NGOs and other institutions that respond to forced displacement. I liaised with United Nations agencies such as UNDP and WFP, international organisations such as IOM and ICRC and NGOs (both international and local).
I participated with state and non-state institutions in missions in the field to evaluate conditions for return and accompany IDPs in their return when feasible. I gave workshops on the Methodology of Contingency Planning to Municipal Committees, and directed the construction of Contingency Plans for the attention of IDPs in the Municipalities of Barrancabermeja and San Pablo. This activity was then initiated with the Municipal Committees of Yondó and Cantagallo.
I gave talks on the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, as well as the Colombian law that partly implements them, to the Red de Solidaridad Social, Municipal Committees, the Military and Police and presented seminars to the security forces on Prevention and Protection in Situations of Displacement. I participated in the production of the office’s Strategy Paper for years 2000-2001, and collaborated on the office’s monthly contribution to the Situation Report, which was sent to Geneva, as well as other pertinent reports sent to the head-office in Bogota.
As well as substantive duties, I regularly co-ordinated the office’s missions to the field and visits to Barrancabermeja by high level UN functionaries, ambassadorial delegations and international NGOs
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- Human Rights Officer (United Nations Volunteer Specialist), United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala, May 1999 to January 2000
As the Human Rights Observer in the Sub-Regional Office of MINUGUA in Cantabal, my main task was to monitor compliance with the Global Accord on Human Rights signed between the government of Guatemala and the URNG as a component of the peace process. This entailed receiving complaints of human rights violations, carrying out fact finding missions to establish the veracity of the complaints and evaluating the state’s response to them. I identified tendencies and patterns of human rights violations, which were reported to the head office. Verifying alleged human rights violations involved interviewing victims, witnesses and state authorities and then legal analysis of information obtained, in light of MINUGUA’s verification manual, Human Rights Conventions to which Guatemala is party, Customary International Law, International Jurisprudence and General Principles of International Law. This information was then registered and classified in the Human Rights Database which was sent to mission headquarters every month. These duties required substantial presence in the field as well as the various state institutions associated with the administration of justice.
I maintained contacts with local authorities, the judiciary, the military and police and representatives of civil society including the church and NGOs. I also gave talks to communities and the armed forces on the mandate and activities of MINUGUA and participated in weekly meetings in MINUGUA’s Regional Office in Coban, informing the Co-ordinator of the activities associated with the human rights area of the Cantabal office. During general elections, I also monitored compliance with electoral rights.
- International Lawyer, The Centre for Human Rights Legal Action (NGO), January 1998 to December 1998
My duties were to prepare, present and manage cases, alleging violations of the American Convention on Human Rights, before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. This involved all aspects of managing a petition before the Commission, from the initial interview with the client, on-site investigation and legal analysis, through to the preparation and presentation of the petition to the Commission. The further management of a case implied acting for the client in regard to the various mechanisms envisaged in the Convention for the resolution of a case, such as representing the client during the Commission hearings in Washington, requesting precautionary measures when necessary, responding to the Government’s comments on the client’s petition during the initial fact-finding stage, and keeping the Commission abreast of any developments in the case at a national level. This naturally involved a great deal of analysis of international law, not only as contained in the American Convention on Human Rights but also from other interpretive sources. These cases involved many and varied violations of the Convention and arose from such matters as the massacre of 174 women and children, murder cases, rape cases, the failure to investigate death threats against indigenous communities, cases involving sexual abuse of children, and cases involving labour rights.
As well as international casework, I was involved in an on-going genocide investigation CALDH was conducting in preparation for bringing cases of genocide and crimes against humanity, before national courts, against two former Guatemalan dictators.
I also gave seminars on human rights to other Human Rights NGOs, on themes ranging from the general nature, history and sources of human rights, to international legal mechanisms and the international obligation upon states to prosecute certain human rights violations.
- International Lawyer, The Guatemalan Human Rights Commission (NGO), April 1997 to December 1997
Legal adviser to the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission (CDHG). My duties included co-writing a report on the human rights situation in Guatemala for the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities which was presented by the Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos de Guatemala (CONADEHGUA) at the Sub-Commission’s 49th Session, as well as analyses on such issues as the international legal implications of Guatemala’s amnesty law (the Law of National Reconciliation), the compliance of the forthcoming Guatemalan Children's Code with the obligations contained within the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and an examination of the contentious Alioto decision, which hinged upon responsibility of state agents in the death of a student protestor. I also provided advice on international law to the director and different areas of the CDHG.
- Intern, Secretariat of the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, December 1995 to March 1996
My duties included preparations for the 48th Session of the CERD held in February/March, 1996. As well as preparing relevant information and documentation for the Committee members, I wrote an analysis of the human rights situation in the Russian Federation focusing on issues relating to racial discrimination. Using this analysis as its basis, I then produced a list of suggested questions for the Committee to put to the Russian government. I also drafted suggested questions to be put to the government of the United Kingdom, which was also before the Committee.
- Intern, United Nations Office of International Affairs, January to March 1995
I assisted in drafting the Status of Forces Agreements between the United Nations and the governments of Angola and Haiti in preparation for the establishment of UNAVEM III and UNMIH respectively. I researched the legal basis of peace keeping operations and drafted legal advice concerning a member of UNPROFOR who was accused of committing murder. Among other assignments, I assisted in drafting the exchange of letters between the United Nations and the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning the establishment, in their territory, of liaison offices for the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. I also assisted in drafting guidelines for interviews to be conducted with military personal of UNPROFOR by the Prosecutors Office of the International Criminal Tribunal.
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