Legal Atlas Consultant – Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility (Remote)

About the role

The consultant will lead the research, validation, design and online development of a global Legal Atlas that documents the statutory age of majority and the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) for all countries and territories. The Atlas will serve as an accessible, searchable knowledge product to support UNICEF’s advocacy for a MACR of at least 14 years without exceptions.

Key responsibilities

• Develop an inception report, research protocol, legal taxonomy, data fields, source hierarchy and quality‑assurance methodology.
• Identify, review and extract relevant legal provisions from constitutions, criminal and juvenile justice legislation, civil codes and other authoritative sources.
• Record citations, enactment dates, legal exceptions and explanatory notes in a structured, editable dataset.
• Analyse each jurisdiction against international standards, flag gaps and prepare country profiles for validation.
• Design the information architecture, user journeys, wireframes and visual design in line with UNICEF branding and accessibility requirements.
• Configure and populate the online database with search, filter, comparison and download functions, and provide administrator guidance.

Required profile

• Master’s degree in law, human rights, international development, public policy, social sciences or a related field.
• Minimum six years of progressively responsible experience in justice for children, child protection, legal reform or a related area.
• Fluency in written and spoken English; working proficiency in French or Spanish is highly desirable.

Required skills

• Development of legal atlases, digital knowledge products and online databases.
• Management of structured legal datasets and verification of primary legal sources.