Terms of Reference

Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) seeks a consultant for the development of a self-directed rapid e-course on international humanitarian law (IHL) for journalists and other media professionals. The e-course will seek to increase the capacity of media professionals to report accurately and responsibly on situations of war and armed conflict and will be published in English, Arabic, French, and Spanish in open access format on HREA's website. The consultant will be responsible for developing and drafting course content for a 3-6 hour e-course (approximately 50 pages of text including articles and/or press releases for case studies) in collaboration with HREA's e-course development team and the Project Steering Committee (comprised of HREA’s Executive Director and IHL and media professionals).

Timeframe

The project will be conducted during a period of 10-15 working days spread over a period of four-five months (with a start date of June 15, 2013).

Work Product

The self-directed e-course will take between 3 and 6 hours to complete and will include overviews of course content, case studies, a glossary of terms, interactive assignments, and multimedia, such as videos and podcasts. Learners will engage with the e-course through problem-solving scenarios and multiple assessments where they will be asked to reflect on the type of decisions they have to make in covering situations of armed conflict. Course modules may include, but are not limited to, the following topics: International Human Rights Framework, the UN System, International Humanitarian Law, Internal Armed Conflict, War Crimes and International Tribunals, Freedom of Expression, and Protection of Vulnerable Groups. Key principles and themes will be incorporated into the course such as responsible journalism, respect for principles of IHL in reporting on situations of armed conflict, and applying a human rights-based approach to reporting on situations of armed conflict.

Duties of the Consultant

The Consultant will:

• conduct a (rapid) review of existing e-courses on international humanitarian law and identify gaps for media professionals, including through outreach to journalists and other media professionals;
• identify course modules (approximately 6-10) and develop learning objectives for each module;
• identify case studies and corresponding articles or press releases available in English, French, Arabic and Spanish;
• develop course content module-by-module working in close consultation with HREA's e-course development team (responsible for guidance in instructional design) and relevant members of the Steering Committee according to the relevance of their areas of expertise in relation to each module.

Compensation

Compensation will be provided for 10-15 working days at a rate to be negotiated.

Application

Application deadline: May 31, 2013

Applicants are asked to send a CV and cover letter to: consultant-ihl-media@hrea.org.