The Council of Europe is looking for a maximum of 90 Provider(s) for the provision of consultancy services in order to support the implementation of projects (both country-specific and regional) and cooperation activities implemented by the Department for the Implementation of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Co-operation Standards with a particular expertise on research, advice, co-ordination and facilitation in relation to the functioning of family courts, capacities of professionals, establishment of collaboration mechanisms and awareness-raising. This includes improving effectiveness of family courts with a view to protect the rights of women, children and other family members, the enhancement of the effectiveness and functioning of the family courts and offices of public prosecutors, the building of the capacities of judges, public prosecutors and experts regarding key human rights and family law issues, the application of the principles of children friendly justice, the improvement of collaboration mechanisms among stakeholders, as well as an increase of the awareness of the public regarding family justice and family court proceedings.
Interested candidates are invited to apply as described in the Tender File and fill out the requested “Act of Engagement” form while attaching the “Documents to be provided”. The deadline for submission of tenders is 05 July 2021 (inclusive).
Please carefully read the requirements of the call:
Tenders (Filled act of engagement and other supporting documents) shall be submitted by email only (with attachments) to the email address: cdm@coe.int with the following reference in subject: line “2021AO32 – Consultancy services_Family Courts”. Tenders submitted to another e-mail account will be excluded from the procedure.
General information can be found on the website of the Council of Europe: http://www.coe.int. Other questions regarding this specific tendering procedure shall be sent at the latest by one week before the deadline for submissions of tenders, in English or French, and shall be exclusively sent to the following address: DGI.Justice.Reform.Unit1@coe.int. This address is to be used for questions only; for modalities of tendering, please refer to the below Article.
All supporting documents shall be submitted in English, failure to do so will result in the exclusion of the tender. If any of the necessary documents are missing, the Council of Europe reserves the right to reject the tender. All supporting documents should be submitted either in PDF.
Documents to be provided
- A completed and signed copy of the Act of Engagement.
- A detailed CV, preferably in Europass Format, demonstrating clearly that the tenderer fulfils the eligibility criteria;
- Motivation letter, maximum two pages long, clearly and concisely indicating:
- how the tenderer meets each of the eligibility criteria (common and lot-specific) for each of the lots applied for (see section B above)
- a list f the countries for which the tenderer has specific knowledge of the family justice systems and/or experience in implementing technical co-operation projects.
- Sample of a document in English or French (e.g. needs assessment report, policy paper, guideline, training material, brochure, article and or speech) recently authored by the tenderer on family justice;
- Contact details of 3 (three) references;
- A list of all owners and executive officers, for legal persons only;
- Registration documents, for legal persons only.
All documents shall be submitted in English (or French for the projects in French-speaking countries), failure to do so will result in the exclusion of the tender. If any of the documents listed above are missing, the Council of Europe reserves the right to reject the tender.
The Council reserves the right to reject a tender if the scanned documents are of such a quality that the documents cannot be read once printed.
Eligibility criteria
Common criteria for all lots:
- At least 2 years of experience in applying knowledge of European standards and best practices concerning family justice and the effective functioning of family courts;
- Minimum 3 years of international work experience in capacity-building projects implemented by the Council of Europe or other international organisations;
- At least 2 years of experience of integrating gender equality, children rights and other relevant human rights and rule of law issues into the field of family justice either by research or practical experience in family courts;
- Excellent knowledge of the English language (at least level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages); OR
- Excellent knowledge of the French language (at least level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (only for projects implemented in French-speaking countries);
- A financial offer not exceeding the limit set out in the Act of Engagement.
Criteria for specific lots:
For Lot 1 (Analysis and Advice):
- Master’s level university degree in law, political sciences, statistics, social sciences, or related fields, or equivalent research experience;
- Minimum 4 years of work experience in at least one of the following fields:
- conducting research on family courts, with a focus on the protection of the rights of family members;
- preparing policy documents, legislative reviews, recommendations, strategic plans for the governments in order to enhance the structure and functioning of family courts;
- practising law as an attorney at law on family law cases in CoE member states,
- working as a judge dealing with family law issues in CoE member states,
- designing practical tools, guidelines and handbooks in order to improve practices concerning family justice;
- women’s access to justice and/or child friendly justice with specific reference to the work of family courts.
For Lot 2 (Capacity Building):
- Master’s level university degree in adult education or other related fields, such as social studies, psychology and law;
- Minimum 4 years of work experience in conducting training needs assessment and/or developing and implementing training programmes (including ToTs), modules and materials (online and offline) on family justice or minimum 4 years of work experience as a judge or attorney at law dealing with family law issues in CoE member states;
- Strong command of innovative and interactive adult education approaches and techniques.
For Lot 3 (Co-ordination and Facilitation):
- Master’s level university degree in law, communication, social sciences, or related fields;
- Minimum 3 years of work experience in one of the following fields:
- developing and implementing a collaboration action plan and working procedures for an enhanced stakeholder engagement on family justice
- designing and implementing a communication strategy and/or awareness-raising campaign for court users and public in general on the rights of family members and the functioning of family justice system;
- odelivering speeches at conferences, seminars and roundtables on the functioning of family courts, with a focus on the protection of the rights of family members;
- preparing online and off-line awareness tools on family justice, including but not limited to booklets, brochures, information material, posters, short videos and web pages.
Award criteria
- Quality of the offer (90%), including:
- Relevance of the experience and expertise of the tenderer in the areas covered by this call (40%);
- Experience in providing technical expertise in the context of international cooperation programmes implemented by the Council of Europe or other intra-governmental organisations preferably in the region (30%);
- Excellent writing and speaking skills in English or French (20%).
- Financial offer (10%).
The Council reserves the right to hold interviews with eligible tenderers.
The Act of Engagement must be completed, signed and scanned in its entirety (i.e. including all the pages). The scanned Act of Engagement may be sent page by page (attached to a single email) or as a compiled document, although a compiled document would be preferred. For all scanned documents, .pdf files are preferred.
Multiple tendering is not authorised.
