Protection Coordinator @Unknown

Front Line Defenders are recruiting a Protection Coordinator – East & Southern Africa to join our team. This is a permanent role based in the region reporting to the Head of Africa.

Overview

The regional team leads Front Line Defenders’ work in the Region, with responsibility for defining priorities, directing organisational protection responses, and ensuring that resources are deployed where they have the greatest impact for human rights defenders (HRDs). Grounded in sustained engagement with HRDs and regional ecosystems, the team determines where the organisation acts, who and how it supports, and how it responds to evolving risks. The Regional Team plays a central role in shaping organisational direction by ensuring that strategies, approaches and interventions are driven by regional priorities, while contributing directly to global strategy and positioning.

The Protection Coordinator (PC) is to lead timely and appropriate response to human rights defenders at risk in East and Southern Africa, ensuring holistic and effective protection support is provided. The PC is responsible for maintaining and developing Front Line Defenders’ contacts and relationships with human rights defenders in the region, providing rapid response to cases of human rights defenders at immediate risk, identifying research priorities on the threats and attacks that they face, providing analysis and producing relevant materials to take action in their support, and inputting into all other programmes and activities specific to the countries assigned.

Background

Front Line Defenders is an international organisation based in Ireland that works exclusively for the protection of human rights defenders at risk. Human rights defenders are people who are persecuted because of their peaceful work for the rights of others. Front Line Defenders provides practical help through protection grants, physical and digital protection training, lobbying, advocacy and campaigning.

Role responsibilities

Key duties include:

• Connect with human rights defenders at risk, while applying intersectional lens, and establish and sustain secure communications with them;
• Provide rapid response to cases of human rights defenders at risk, including but not limited to through the urgent appeal system;
• Provide expert input to Front Line Defenders’ advocacy, visibility, capacity building and protection grants programmes;
• Support on activities and strategies to ensure outreach to women and non-binary human rights defenders and overall gendered analysis of their experiences as defenders;
• Identify, undertake or collaborate on research on a range of protection related issues and gap areas;
• Develop contacts and liaise with relevant regional and other organisations with regard to Front Line Defenders’ work for the protection of human rights defenders in the region;
• Close daily collaboration and workload prioritization with the regional team (staff working on East and Southern Africa from different FLD teams);
• Lead and coordinate overall annual planning of activities in the region;

For further information, please view:

Salary & Benefits

• €52,962 – €72,886 per annum
• 26 annual leave days
• Pension
• Paid Health Insurance
• Income Protection & Life Assurance
• Employee Assistance Scheme (EAP)
• Monthly Well-Being Provisions

Requirements

Interested applicants must have:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills and ability to work in English;
• Ability to deliver accurate and objective written information in a high pressure environment dictated by the need to respond urgently to threats against human rights defenders;
• Knowledge of key human rights trends in the region and their impact on human rights defenders and their movements; ability to demonstrate a nuanced understanding of contexts in which local HRD communities operate;
• Ability to work well with a wide range of people from different cultures, backgrounds and experiences, with empathy and clear boundaries;
• At least some knowledge of key practices and trends in the area of resiliency and well-being for both HRDs and their advocates;
• At least basic knowledge of digital security tools and trends in areas related to freedom of expression, online threats and relevant policies.
• At least 5 years of experience working with a diverse range of human rights defenders;
• Experience with a wide range of defenders, and a strong understanding of the gendered and other risks women human rights defenders and LGBTIQ+ defenders face;
• Experience with drafting reports, conducting research and any other tasks where analytical writing skills are required;
• Experience working with diverse teams, especially in emergency settings.

 
Closing Date

Applicants must submit their applications (CV) by 4pm (local Irish time) on Thursday, 6th August 2026 via the ‘Apply Now’ button as per FLD vacancies page: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/recruitment-volunteering 

Apply Now