Collaborations Legal Officer
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Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA)
Remote (global)- Career category: Legal, Partnership
- Job type: Job
- Organisation type: Civil Society
- Remote option: Remote (global)
- Right to work requirements: Anyone can apply
- Remuneration: USD 50,000 USD / yearly
- Work schedule: Full-time
- Length of contract: Temporary/ Fixed-term
- Deadline: 15/09/2026
- Location: Remote (global)
The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) is a Pan-African and feminist initiative, founded in 2014 to strengthen strategic human rights litigation across the African continent.
About the job
ISLA seeks to appoint a Collaborations Legal Officer to work full-time within the Collaborations priority area. The role will advance ISLA’s legal and normative advocacy by leading the dissemination and strategic uptake of existing knowledge products, supporting civil-society partners and coalitions, and responding to fast-moving regional developments. The Legal Officer will focus particularly on strengthening regional mechanism and countering anti-rights actors by utilising ISLA’s seizing and shielding approach, they will support strengthening civil society, and advocacy responses to regressive normative developments such as the AU Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (CEVAWG), the draft African Charter on Family Values and Sovereignty, and related anti-rights developments. Grounded in ISLA’s Collaborations Guide, the role combines strong legal analysis and writing with partner engagement, public advocacy and responsive project delivery.
Minimum Job Requirements:
ISLA seeks to appoint a Collaborations Legal Officer to work full-time within the Collaborations priority area. The role will advance ISLA’s legal and normative advocacy by leading the dissemination and strategic uptake of existing knowledge products, supporting civil-society partners and coalitions, and responding to fast-moving regional developments. The Legal Officer will focus particularly on strengthening regional mechanism and countering anti-rights actors by utilising ISLA’s seizing and shielding approach, they will support strengthening civil society, and advocacy responses to regressive normative developments such as the AU Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (CEVAWG), the draft African Charter on Family Values and Sovereignty, and related anti-rights developments. Grounded in ISLA’s Collaborations Guide, the role combines strong legal analysis and writing with partner engagement, public advocacy and responsive project delivery.
Minimum Job Requirements:
Education
- An advanced legal degree from a recognized institution (master’s Level).
- A minimum of 4 years of work experience in human rights, advocacy or a related field.
Experience
- Demonstrated understanding and experience working with or within the African human rights system, including engagement with its organs, mechanisms or normative and standard-setting processes.
- Demonstrated experience in human rights legal research, litigation, advocacy or programming, with strong knowledge of relevant regional and international frameworks and jurisprudence.
- A strong record of producing legal and advocacy documents to a near-final standard with minimal supervision and repackaging technical content for different audiences.
- Experience leading partner communications and working with coalitions, networks, movements or civil-society organisations, including convening and sustaining collaborative work.
- Experience representing an organisation or coalition publicly and advocating on contentious issues before varied audiences.
- Experience managing multiple projects or workstreams in a fast-moving environment with limited supervision.
Skills and Competencies
- Excellent legal research, analysis, drafting and editing skills, with meticulous attention to detail.
- Strong understanding of constitutional, regional and international human rights law and the political dynamics that shape regional norm-setting.
- Ability to communicate complex legal and normative arguments clearly, accurately and persuasively in writing and orally.
- Strong public-speaking, facilitation and representation skills, including the confidence to engage hostile, divided or high-level audiences.
- Strong relationship-management and coalition-building skills, with the judgement to navigate disagreement and complex political landscapes.
- Ability to work independently, exercise initiative, prioritise effectively and deliver high-quality outputs under tight and changing timelines.
- Sound project-management and organisational skills, including the ability to plan, track, coordinate and report on concurrent priorities.
- A collaborative, resourceful and solutions-oriented approach, coupled with high standards of integrity and professionalism.
- Knowledge and understanding of human rights as they relate to gender and sexuality, grounded in feminist analysis.
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