Title: Spanish Translator (Reviser)
Location: Remote
Reporting to: Senior Legal and Policy Advisor
Period: Early January 2024 through 1 March 2024
About Us
The Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation is a survivor-centred rights based international organisation, dedicated to ending sexual violence as a weapon of war globally. Established in 2016, with headquarters in the Hague, the Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation supports survivors’ demands for a world where sexual violence as a weapon of war is no longer tolerated, and bears consequences for individual perpetrators and states. We work for a future where survivors receive the holistic care & compensation, they need to rebuild their lives. We create opportunities for survivors to speak out and be heard, and where they can organise to create change, influence policies, and demand justice and accountability.
We are working towards a future where sexual violence in conflict is no longer seen as inevitable but is recognised for what it is: a crime that should have consequences. We want the international community to draw a line against wartime sexual violence and to hold states and individuals accountable. For more information, see our website at www.mukwegefoundation.org.
Background
Following Dr Mukwege’s call for action at the 2021 G7 annual summit, the Mukwege Foundation launched a campaign, the Red Line Initiative, to demand that states take meaningful action to end sexual violence in conflict. The Red Line Initiative is rooted in the belief that sexual violence in conflict can be prevented and must be prioritised as a wholly unacceptable tactic of warfare.
The Red Line Initiative aims to:
1) Evoke a clear moral rejection and outcry against the use of conflict-related sexual violence in all its forms, including as a method of warfare;
2) Strengthen and clarify the legal obligations on states to prohibit the use of sexual violence in conflict and to prevent and punish it, as well as to repair the harms it causes; and
3) Build political will to ensure a more robust and timely response by States in line with their international obligations.
Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) is regulated through International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law, and the United Nations Security Council under its peace and security authority. For each of these frameworks, over the past decade and a half, there have been important developments in clarifying and strengthening states’ obligations to prevent, stop, and respond to conflict-related sexual violence. Through expert round tables, survivor and partner consultations, and extensive interviews and research with key actors in this field, our research to date has identified gaps and problems in existing legal frameworks and prevention tools and practices. However, the biggest single issues are a lack of awareness and political will to implement the currently existing obligations or to take a firm stand when those obligations are violated.
Our solution was to create an online resource, a Guidebook which compiles all the current existing international law and standards relevant to conflict-related sexual violence as a comprehensive resource. The Guidebook covers state obligations in four thematic areas: prevention; justice and accountability; humanitarian response; and reparations. It contains chapters on states’ ratification status of the relevant international/regional legal instruments, and a library of further readings.
The aim of the Guidebook is to aid states to better understand their current existing obligations, as well as to strengthen the capacity of civil society, including survivor groups, in asserting their rights and to support their advocacy efforts to hold states accountable.
Project information
The Guidebook was publicly launched in June 2023 and is available at https://red-line-guidebook.netlify.app/. The launch of the Guidebook represents the close of Phase I of the overall Guidebook project. The project is now in Phase II, which aims to further develop the online Guidebook to make it more accessible and user-friendly.
The Guidebook is currently available only in English. To make the Guidebook accessible, other language versions are required. A full Spanish language draft translation of the Guidebook (totalling approximately 400 pages in Word including footnotes, 300 without footnotes) has already been produced.
Call for consultant
Considering all of the above, the Mukwege Foundation is seeking a Spanish Translator (Reviser) with experience working with legal texts who will revise and edit the draft Spanish translation of the Guidebook.
The Consultant will work under the supervision of the Mukwege Foundation’s Senior Legal and Policy Advisor.
Duration of consultancy and renumeration
The consultant must be available to begin work in the beginning of January 2024. The consultancy will run from January to 1 March 2024.
A lump sum payment of 10 000 EUR (inclusive of all applicable taxes and fees) will be paid based on the project deliverables set out in this Terms of Reference.
How to apply
How to bid
Kindly submit a proposal by 11.59 CET on 31 December 2023 to vacancies@mukwegefoundation.org using the subject line “Proposal Guidebook Spanish translation”.
Your proposal should include 3 separate documents as detailed below:
1. Work-plan: A detailed work-plan proposal (maximum 3 pages), including intermediate deadlines.
- NOTE: The deadline for the delivery of the final revision is March 1st. Any intermediate deadlines are to be proposed by the bidder. Bidders are encouraged to review the online Guidebook at https://red-line-guidebook.netlify.app/ when proposing intermediate deadlines.
- NOTE: We are committed to ensuring a fair and unbiased assessment process. To maintain anonymity during the proposal evaluation, we kindly request that the submitted work-plan exclude any identifying information.
2. References: The names and contact details (including email address) of two professional references, one of which must be a client for whom you have previously provided similar consultancy services.
3. Bio/CV: Including, as applicable:
- a. Experience revising legal documents. Experience providing translation services for legal institutions is desirable. Experience translating or revising documents related to international law would also be desirable.
- b. Professional certifications.