Postdoctoral Researcher - Gent, België - Universiteit Gent

Universiteit Gent

Geverifieerd bedrijf

Gent, België

1 week geleden

Geplaatst door:

Sophie Dubois

beBee Recruiter

Beschrijving

Faculty of Law and Criminology:

- **Department: RE2

Europees, Publiek

- en Internationaal Recht**:

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Occupancy rate:100%:

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Number of positions: 1:

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Type of employment: Contract of limited duration:

Term of assignment: 12 M:

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Wage scale: PD1 to PD4 (doctoral degree):

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Required diploma: PhD

Job description:

We are seeking a researcher for a fully-funded postdoctoral fellowship as part of the iBOF project "Future-proofing human rights. Developing thicker forms of accountability".

We are looking for a mature postdoctoral researcher, with a PhD in human rights or other relevant fields and have a proven track record of working on related topics.

The postdoc will be based at the Human Rights Centre at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of Ghent University, but will (remotely) collaborate with colleagues at other Flemish Universities.

Description of the broader research project:
The position is created as part of a broader research project on accountability for human rights.

The overall research project is a multi-disciplinary and multi-method study that seeks to identify a variety of avenues for achieving better human rights protection that can provide the basis for a thicker conceptualization of the notion of (human rights) accountability.

It seeks to strengthen human rights law by identifying means or mechanisms that ensure a thicker form of accountability.

This project proposes to further develop the concept of accountability so that it can face up to current social challenges, such as COVID-19, corporate abuse or surveillance dilemmas.

Our particular concern is with the disconnect between the formal legal system and the lived experiences of those who suffer harms that could logically be - but are not yet - understood as a human rights violation.

Our overarching research question is:
How can thicker accountability for human rights violations be achieved, so as to ensure better human rights protection in line with the everyday experience of rights holders? This question breaks down into three sub-questions:

What counts/should count, as a human rights violation, i.e. what types of substantive wrongs (do not) trigger accountability in practice?
Who can/should be held accountable (i.e. who is a dutybearer), but now slips through the net?
How can the human rights framework be altered to accommodate this, i.e. what are good practices?

Description of your specific research:

The work of the postdoc will focus on accountability as a core objective of justice processes in contexts of ongoing violence, and will adopt the lens of transitional justice.

The project should contribute to the broader research objective of strengthening human rights law by reconstructing the concept of accountability so that it can face up to current social challenges (see this document).

The project should thus speak to the question of
_How can thicker accountability for human rights violations be achieved, so as to ensure better human rights protection? _

In terms of academic and scientific focus, the postdoc will open up the black box of accountability and revisit the notion by integrating state of the art insights as they have been developed in various disciplines and subprojects of the iBOF project, to offer a thicker, more encompassing, and more actor-oriented understanding of accountability that facilitates better human rights protection for those most in need.

This entails a substantive recasting of the discussion, across disciplinary confines, and requires the integration of legal and extra-legal perspectives.

This includes a focus on methodological innovation, as well as academic and professional/societal valorization, including the coordination of a joint publication that integrates findings, and outreach to policy-makers and practitioners.

In order to be eligible, applicants must
- hold a PhD degree in social and political sciences, law, anthropology or a related discipline;
- have a proven track record (including through publications) and demonstrable expertise in the domain of human rights and accountability, and the interdisciplinary study thereof;
- be fluent in English as their primary working language and as their primary publication language.

Furthermore, applicants who meet multiple of the following conditions will be ranked higher during the assessment procedure
- have multidisciplinary training (e.g. as demonstrated through multiple degrees) and/or a proven track record in multidisciplinary research, as relevant to the iBOF research project;
- have in-depth knowledge of the case studies comprising the iBOF project;
- have demonstrable expertise in or familiarity with actor-oriented perspectives and/or users' perspectives on human rights;
- have experience with taking on a proactive role within a collaborative research project and to take up a supportive role towards junior team members;
- have experience with qualitative socio-legal research me