The NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) was established in 1963 as an independent not-for– profit organisation committed to protecting civil liberties and human rights in Australia. We are also secular and politically non-partisan.

We engage with the full range of civil liberties and human rights issues within NSW and at a national level. We have close working relationships with other councils for civil liberties across Australia.

Our main work is done through monitoring government and agencies’ activities and high level advocacy to influence community views and government policies and laws. NSWCCL also responds to complaints from the public on civil liberties related issues. Our work is largely done by volunteers.

The Position

NSWCCL is looking for a person with legal qualifications to work with its executive and committee on priority civil liberties and human rights issues.

This is a new position created to strengthen our capacity to respond to an increasing volume of challenges to civil liberties and rights in Australia. It will be an exciting and challenging position.

The focus of this position will be advocacy work around priority civil liberties issues. This will include: research and analysis of issues; preparing advice on matters before state and federal parliaments; formal submissions to parliamentary and other inquiries; organising and participating in public forums; arguing our case in the media and professional forums and, increasingly, though social media. It could also involve developing and running campaigns and special projects.

As NSWCCL’s work is largely done by volunteers, the person will be working closely with relevant committee and executive members and will need to be collaborative, highly motivated and able to set and manage priorities across multiple tasks.

Much of the work we do must be done within externally established timeframes to be useful.

Skills and Qualifications

We are looking for a person with:

• A legal qualification, together with some post qualification experience;
• A strong commitment to the protection of civil liberties and human rights;
• A commitment to objectivity and secularity, in a human rights and political advocacy organisation;
• Strong conceptual and analytical capacity;
• Highly developed research skills, including the ability to undertake detailed research which synthesises large amounts of material under tight time pressures to provide a concise research deliverable;
• Highly developed oral and written communication skills when communicating across legal and non-legal audiences;
• Ability to communicate across traditional and online media platforms, including facebook and twitter;
• Familiarity with civil liberties and human rights issues and New South Wales, Commonwealth and international legal frameworks which regulate these issues;
• Highly developed organisational skills, including the ability to plan and manage competing priorities and deadlines with limited supervision;
• Ability to work collaboratively and creatively in a largely volunteer context;
• Advanced Microsoft Office skills;
• Ability to work independently including a high level of self-motivation, personal accountability for results and sound judgement.

Desirable

1. Familiarity with the Nationbuilder platform;
2. Experience in making professional contributions to social media accounts and websites and accessing and analysing information from associated databases;
3. A humanities, social sciences or economics based undergraduate level qualification;
4. Post qualification experience working in advocacy or with an NGO.