As the ways in which we use technology continue to develop, so too do the implications for human rights professionals. Technological and digital innovation is increasingly used by organisations to support human rights and in recent years we have seen the emergence of numerous new career paths in the sector. Human rights defenders also need to be aware of the threats posed to human rights by technology and how to deal with them; unmanned drones and the changing face of modern conflict present grave challenges for human rights across the globe and human rights organisations need to have the knowledge and skills to be able to respond to the complex ways in which technology and human rights interact.

What Does Technological and Digital Innovation Mean for Human Rights?

The rapid expansion of technology has meant that the ways in which we communicate and disseminate information are shifting towards digital platforms. Data published by Pew Research in 2016 revealed that the ‘digital divide’ – the difference in the use and availability of technology between developed and less developed countries – is narrowing, with ‘smartphone ownership rates in emerging and developing nations rising at an extraordinary rate’. This trend highlights new ways for human rights professionals to communicate with a wide audience and to reach millions of people around the world. A host of new opportunities have opened up for tech experts to work in the human rights sector in roles such as app developers and digital communications officers.

These technological advances mean that the human rights worker’s toolkit is expanding in parallel to the expansion of technology. Technology is proving to be particularly important as a means of monitoring and documenting violations of human rights and international laws, and several human rights organisations have embraced technology as a tool for collating evidence and data. WITNESS uses technology to allow citizens across the globe to capture and preserve footage of human rights violations and its ‘media lab’ works to source and verify eyewitness footage uploaded to its platform, serving to empower individual citizens while documenting violations in a way that ensures evidential integrity. eyeWitness similarly uses mobile technology to allow citizens to report human rights violations and submit supporting evidence via a mobile app. The information is then verified and analysed in order to help bring individuals to justice and to strengthen accountability for human rights violations and atrocities. eyeWitness’ technology has been used by TRIAL International to strengthen prosecutions for atrocity crimes brought before the courts in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It is important for those tasked with investigating international crimes and human rights violations to keep up with technological developments as the nature of evidence gathering changes. Collection and analysis of satellite imagery, for example, can be a powerful documentation tool. A recent example is Human Rights Watch’s use of satellite imagery to document the extent of the destruction of Rohingya villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

In addition to providing new ways to document evidence, technology can play an important role in supporting economic and social development. The Asian Development Bank has noted that information technology has the ability to transcend geographical boundaries, economies and sectors to support international development initiatives. Berkley Law School at the University of California has even launched a ‘Technology and Human Rights Program’ and created the first ever university-based Human Rights Investigations Lab in collaboration with Amnesty International, where information is analyses and verified for use by international organisations and news agencies and lawyers.  As part of the same project, Berkley is also supporting the International Criminal Court in The Hague to build its capacity in the fields of software, security, analytics and open source intelligence, strengthening the court’s ability to respond to grave human rights violations.

Tech careers in the human rights sector cover a wide range of disciplines, including mass communication, app development and programme development that focuses on how technological innovation can increase the scope and impact of human rights programming.

Human Rights and Technology Opportunities

Opportunities to work at the intersection of human rights and technology are on the increase as organisations continue to develop new ways to harness technology and use innovation to support and protect human rights. The impact of technology on human rights is huge – using online learning to expand the reach of educational programmes, using technology to capture and document human rights violations, and using blockchain technology to increase transparency in supply chains are just a few examples of how technology can be used to support human rights efforts.

Below is an overview of some organisations working on human rights and technology. You can find out more about the organisations, including details of vacancies, via the links below.

• Witness provides training in video production and filming, as well as advocacy strategies, to people who are affected by critical human rights situations so that evidence can be gathered and documented. Vacancies, and other opportunities to get involved can be found
• Privacy International is a London-based organisation, working globally on privacy rights, including privacy protections including surveillance safeguards in law and technology. Their projects focus on issues such as data protection laws and challenging the use of government hacking. Click here for their recruitment page.
• The Digital Freedom Fund is based in The Netherlands which supports strategic litigation to advance digital rights in Europe. Opportunities for human rights professionals with expertise in law and technology are advertised here and speculative applications are also accepted.
• The eyeWitness project has developed an app that can be used to document and verify footage of human rights violations. Vacancies, as well as pro bono opportunities, are advertised
• HURIDOCS is a Geneva-based NGO, specialising in using technology to organise and present data about human rights violations. HURIDOCS works with human rights defenders to help them use and develop technology to support front-line human rights work. You can contact them here to find out more about their projects and current opportunities.

As well as organisations that specialise in human rights and technology, other organisations that work on broader human rights issues are increasingly working to incorporate technology and innovation into their programmes. Organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Global Witness and Amnesty International are building technology-driven approaches into their programmes and developing novel approaches to human rights work. Universities are keeping up with these changes by incorporating technology into human rights degree courses, with some universities offering specific modules in human rights and technology. The Central European University offers a course in Human Rights and Emerging Technologies, which can be taken as part of a degree programme when specialising in political science or gender studies, and which aims to apply new technologies and scientific advances to the human rights context.

With technological advances, human rights professionals are able to access more ways to respond to human rights violations and have access to global digital platforms for advocacy and education. It is essential for those already working in the sector, as well as aspiring human rights workers, to expand their skill sets in order to harness these new opportunities.

The post Jobs in Technology and Human Rights appeared first on Human Rights Careers.

Interview with Catherine Fischl, Former Acting Head Human Rights & Rule of Law Department, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Presence in Albania

What does your role involve? What is a typical day for you?

I started at OSCE in the position of Senior Judicial Officer and my main responsibility in that role was to manage a large-scale project designed to improve efficiency in the Albanian District Courts (civil and criminal) by promoting dialogue between the various justice stakeholders (judges, lawyers, police, probation services), identifying changes which could be made to the civil procedure code and advocating for these. I was also responsible for developing new projects and providing comments on draft laws. Albania is currently undergoing a process of justice reform, involving the introduction of a series of new institutions and a vetting process for judges and OSCE played a key role in supporting this reform.

After a couple of months my boss left and so me and a colleague shared the role of Acting Head of Human Rights and Rule of Law Dept for the next year or so. In that role I was responsible for setting the strategy for the team, overseeing various projects relating to human rights and rule of law and approving spending within the department as well as representing the department at various events in country and abroad.

What was your route to your current role?

I worked as a criminal defence lawyer in the UK for five years and completed various trial monitoring projects in my spare time (including monitoring the trial of an Egyptian pro-democracy blogger in Cairo in 2014-15) before moving to Myanmar in mid-2015. Initially I worked as a consultant for a justice focused NGO in Yangon on trial monitoring projects before working as International Legal Specialist for the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. I then applied to OSCE and was employed by their Presence in Albania from September 2016.

What do you enjoy most about your job? What are the challenges?

Most importantly I found the work at OSCE very interesting – it was a chance to work on interesting topics at a time of great change in the justice sector in the country. I was also very lucky to work with motivated and interesting Albanian colleagues and, of course, to feel as though our team was making a difference. Challenges included dealing with the sometimes bureaucratic operation of the OSCE which is a very large organisation and also dealing with funding delays and issues which are frequent in this sector.

Do you have any words of advice for aspiring human rights professionals who want to pursue a similar career path?

These types of careers are really varied and so researching what types of areas you might be interested in is really important. I found voluntary work in my spare time whilst working as a lawyer a good way in as it allowed me to work at the same time, though I was lucky that my firm were supportive of this. I found this type of work (trial observation, online training provision, letter writing in support of those facing unfair trials) through NGOs and lawyers’ organisations. If you’re enthusiastic about an organisation’s work, write to them and see what opportunities they have!

The post Human Rights Career Paths: Inter-Governmental Organisations appeared first on Human Rights Careers.

Interview with Helen Sullivan-Looney, Senior Legal Consultant for a defence team at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

What does your role involve? What is a typical day for you?

The case in which I’m currently involved is in the investigation stage, so my day-to-day work involves a lot of review and analysis of witness statements and other documents, and drafting motions to protect our client’s procedural and substantive fair trial rights. I assist the lead lawyers in developing defence strategies and tactics, at the instruction of our client. I also supervise junior consultants and interns.

What was your route to your current role?

I started out as a public defender in the United States, but had always been interested in ICL and international human rights. After a few years as a public defender, in 2011 I moved to The Netherlands to do an LLM degree in ICL at Utrecht University. While getting my LLM, I did an externship with a defence team at the ICTY in The Hague. The lead lawyer in that case also represented one of the alleged senior leaders of the Democratic Kampuchea government (also known as the Khmer Rouge) in Case 002 at the ECCC in Cambodia. When I graduated from the LLM program, he offered me an internship with his team in that case. A few months after my internship ended, a consultancy job opened up on his team. I applied for it and was hired in 2012, and have been working at the ECCC more or less since then. When our client in Case 002 passed away in 2013, I worked for about a year and a half in Myanmar at a commercial law firm doing a wide range of transactional work, and then I was contacted about a senior consultant position at the ECCC in Case 003 (involving the alleged commander of the Khmer Rouge navy). I was hired in 2015 and have been back at the ECCC since then.

What do you enjoy most about your job? What are the challenges?

What I enjoy most about my job is the litigation on substantive legal and procedural issues. Since the Democratic Kampuchea regime existed from April 1975-January 1979, the ECCC can only apply domestic and international criminal laws that existed at that time. This legal requirement has resulted in a lot of interesting litigation about, for example, the definition of crimes against humanity in the 1970s or whether rape was recognized as a crime against humanity in the 1970s. Much of this litigation represents the first time these questions have been addressed by an international or hybrid international tribunal, so it’s been exciting to be part of that process. I also really enjoy the people I work with. Our team is Cambodian, American, French, you name it, and it’s great to work with people from different cultural and legal backgrounds. It gives me a deeper perspective on my own work.

The challenges of my job relate to what I enjoy most about it, which is that it can be difficult to find the relevant documents that allow you to examine a treaty’s legislative history or a State’s practice in the 1970s regarding a particular international crime. Sometimes it can feel a bit like you’re a private investigator trying to hunt down a piece of evidence, which is both challenging and fun!

Do you have any words of advice for aspiring human rights professionals who want to pursue a similar career path?

If you want to practice ICL, I think it’s important to practice domestically for a few years before moving into the international arena. Domestic practice gives you advocacy and client representation experience and research and writing skills that are of huge value in a case. You’re better able to strategize about a case, recognize fair trial issues, and help advise a client if you’ve had experience strategizing and managing your own cases and clients. I also think networking with people in the ICL world is very important. The ICL community is quite small and most people I know got their jobs through other people they knew. So, as difficult as it can be, networking is invaluable.

Do you have any other comments or words of advice?

Take advantage of as many seminars, trainings, or meet-ups as are available in your area. They’re a great way to learn more about ICL and to meet people engaged in the work.

The post Human Rights Career Paths: Senior Legal Consultant (International Criminal Law) appeared first on Human Rights Careers.

Interview with Shama Farooq, Rule of Law and Access to Justice Officer for UNDP in Shan State, Myanmar

What is your job title? What is a typical day for you?

I serve as a Rule of Law and Access to Justice Officer for UNDP in Myanmar. I assist UNDP in implementing its programmes that help the country develop a governmental culture of compliance with rule of law principles, and especially to promote human rights and public participation in decision making. On a daily basis, I support the work of UNDP’s on-the-ground projects, working with different groups such as legal aid lawyers and rule of law trainers, by advising on programme content and delivery. I also assist government counterparts, such as prosecutors and judges, in training their staff on human rights principles. On any given day I might start off with observing a mobile training on gender based violence organised by one of our projects for community leaders. Later, I might be reviewing reports on how a legal aid organisation that we are funding is delivering access to justice to vulnerable women and girls, followed by talking to local members of a governmental justice sector coordinating body to discuss their plans for addressing citizen complaints.

What was your route to your current role?

After law school, I spent nearly ten years working in access to justice, providing legal aid to vulnerable and indigent groups. During most of that time I served as a public defender representing criminal defendants. During my tenure as a public defender, I had the chance to pursue a three-month long fellowship in Palestine (West Bank) with an international organisation that helps set up legal aid systems in transitional countries. That gave me my first international exposure working with lawyers in different countries promoting access to justice principles and effective lawyering techniques. I left the public defender’s office to join the organisation full time working primarily in Tunisia. Owing largely to my language skills and criminal justice background, I also worked on small consultancies with UNODC training prosecutors in Pakistan. Beginning to get a feel for the larger justice sector picture, I decided I needed to immerse myself in critical thought on criminal law and justice, so I spent a year teaching at a law school in China that provides a joint American JD and Chinese Masters of Law curriculum. That experience allowed me to engage in the study of comparative law, specifically comparative criminal law, which helped me to think creatively about solutions to common justice sector problems. I then transitioned into my current role as Rule of Law and Access to Justice officer, as an International UN Volunteer Specialist, in Myanmar.

What do you enjoy most about the job? What are the challenges?

I enjoy witnessing the eagerness of the people I work with to learn about international principles of human rights and rule of law. I am very lucky to have a wonderful team of supportive staff around me who are experienced and keen on making a difference. The challenges are the ones that are common to all areas of development and human rights work: seeing “bad” things happen around you even though you and others are working really hard to prevent them and then being a professional and getting right back to your work; and being far away from “home.”

Do you have any words of advice for aspiring human rights professionals who want to pursue a similar career path?

Try to get real on-the-ground experience providing direct services. Invest in a good education which values critical thought and introduces you to new and challenging ideas. Find mentors along the way. Remember where you come from and the privileges you carry with you.

The post Human Rights Career Paths: UNDP Field Officer appeared first on Human Rights Careers.

Interview with Leo Twiggs, Programme Development Officer with IDLO in The Hague

“IDLO is the only intergovernmental organization exclusively devoted to promoting the rule of law. Governments, multilateral organizations, private foundations and the private sector support our work. We are headquartered in Rome, where we were first founded, and where we continue to enjoy strong support from the Italian government. We are present in The Hague, a city whose hospitality connects us with an unrivaled legal tradition. And we are represented at the United Nations in New York and Geneva, where we help shape the debate about human rights and development.”

(Source: idlo.int)

What does your role involve? What is a typical day for you?

I work for the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) as a Programme Development Officer. As a Programme Development Officer, I am responsible for creating and articulating current and future rule of law programming for the organisation, which means developing programming both in locations where IDLO is already working, and also in locations where IDLO hopes to expand operations. In a typical day, a Programme Development Officer might undertake needs assessments and scoping missions with the aim to design new projects for IDLO. Other tasks include designing country, regional or thematic results-based project proposals in line with IDLO’s strategic plan. I work with team members in diverse locations across the globe to ensure that programmes include results-based monitoring and evaluation of project activities and I provide guidance and recommendations for improvement of current rule of law programmes. I carry out contextual research on potential areas of programmatic expansion, and work with people around the world to design and draft proposals for rule of law programming.

What was your route to your current role?

Before law school, I worked as a Grant Writer and Development Officer in a Washington, D.C. based educational non-profit organisation. There, I learned how the world of proposal-based fundraising works, and learned how to draft project proposals. After I went to law school, where I specialised in international human rights law and was a research assistant for a former UN Special Rapporteur, I took a fellowship as a legal researcher in Geneva, where I learned about international human rights law and standards in practice and how they are applied (or not applied) in the real world. After my fellowship, I worked as a Programme Development Officer drafting competitive project proposals for rule of law funding. During my time in Geneva, I completed an LLM focused on international humanitarian law and human rights at the Geneva Academy Graduate Institute. From Geneva, I took a job as a United Nations Volunteer (UNV) working for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Myanmar as a Rule of Law Officer. In Myanmar, I gained first-hand experience with programme implementation. This experience led me to my current job.

What do you enjoy most about your job? What are the challenges?

What I enjoy most about the job is also the greatest challenge: learning about new areas of the law and the world in a short timeframe in order to develop a well-informed proposal that can be implemented and will achieve the desired results. I am fortunate that I am able to learn a great deal about new people, places, and justice systems every day.

Do you have any words of advice for aspiring human rights professionals who want to pursue a similar career path?

If you have decided that a career in human rights or international development is your goal, then you must pursue it relentlessly. Be prepared to make sacrifices in terms of compensation, in terms of stability, and in terms of your family and community ties. Take every opportunity presented to you even if the job does not seem ideal. Each project and responsibility, no matter how small, is an opportunity to learn, perfect your skills, and make new connections. Above all, show respect for your colleagues and the people for whom you provide service. Remember that this career is essentially about the service of others. I think if you keep that mindset, and stay humble, people recognise you as someone they want to work with because they understand that you will put the results that the programme is trying to achieve before personal gain.

Do you have any other comments or words of advice?

If you’re from a developed, Western country, get experience in the developing world. It is almost impossible to design and implement quality rule of law programming without an understanding of how justice is provided in the developing world.

The post Human Rights Career Paths: Programme Development Officer appeared first on Human Rights Careers.

Traditional human rights careers usually involve working for an international organisation, non-governmental organisation or non-profit. In terms of accountability for human rights violations, advocacy groups have, in the past, focused primarily on states, who have ultimate responsibility for protecting their citizens and guarding against human rights abuses. However, human rights groups are increasingly looking to businesses and corporations, who, in a globalised economy, are starting to share the burden of accountability for human rights.

In a 2011 Resolution, the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. These Guiding Principles are grounded in the recognition that business enterprises, as ‘specialised organs of society’, as well as states, must comply with applicable laws and must respect human rights. While ultimate responsibility for the protection of human rights and adherence to relevant legal instruments remains with the state, the private sector is coming under increasing scrutiny and pressure to ensure that they too are working to protect the rights of people in communities that are impacted by their operations. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has emphasised the role of the private sector in protecting human rights, stating that the role of businesses is integral to tackling global human rights challenges and it is crucial for them to adopt the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

What does this mean for human rights careers?

As business and corporations become more engaged in improving their human rights footprint and corporate reputation, we are seeing more human rights-related job opportunities outside the traditional sphere of charities and NGOs. The UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights encourage companies to adopt clear human rights policies, and companies are employing human rights specialists to work on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes, as well as related areas such as research and communications.

Those who are working on human rights in the private sector often report greater efficiency and that, in contrast to their experiences in the public/ non-profit sector, policies tend to be implemented much faster, resulting in the feeling that their work has a direct positive impact when companies choose to improve their human rights footprint. While it is true that some companies might see human rights and CSR as a ‘box-ticking’ exercise, more and more companies are starting to take their corporate responsibilities seriously, particularly when considering that it is in fact in their reputational and financial interests to avoid association with human rights violations. Feeling and seeing the difference that their work contributes to were commonly reported experiences of human rights professionals interviewed for this article. Examples cited included working with a company and finding that their cleaning staff were not all receiving a living wage; following negotiations with the company’s human resources contractor, cleaning staff received a pay increase – a small, but tangible and direct impact. Wider examples included being able to ensure that due diligence processes focused on human rights and took seriously the risks that business operations posed to communities, consequently taking real steps to remove and mitigate these risks. One CSR specialist explained that ’the more companies who understand the human rights agenda, the better the chance that they will be able to implement meaningful programmes for change’.

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Working in the field of human rights can be exciting and challenging, with new developments and initiatives creating a fast-paced and dynamic working environment. Keeping up to date with these developments is difficult; human rights careers are demanding and often leave little time for professional development and work-based learning. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is, in some professions, such as law and medicine, mandatory, and is designed to ensure that the services provided by professionals in these fields are high quality and based upon the most recent knowledge and innovations. Human rights professionals are, too, providing a service, whether that service is at the front line of humanitarian assistance or related to policy and programme development, and it is essential that this work is grounded in the latest developments and best practices in the profession.

Take part in Human Rights MOOCs

One of the most accessible ways to stay up to date is by participating in one or more of the many Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), which are offered by a range of prestigious universities and international organisations, including UNICEF and Amnesty International. While some of the general human rights courses are more tailored to those who are new to the field, there are also more specialist courses and advanced topics available, such as children’s rights, international criminal law, non-profit leadership and governance and sustainable development, which offer valuable insights to those already working in the profession who are looking to expand their knowledge.

These courses are generally free of charge, with a small fee if formal certification is required. Financial help is available for those who qualify.

Sign up for specialised trainings

Many international organisations and NGOs offer specialised training in human rights related subject areas, as well as practical areas such as monitoring and evaluation and diplomacy. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies offers an Online Diploma Course in Humanitarian Diplomacy, a 12-week course covering international humanitarian law, research skills and advocacy and negotiation skills. In addition to the online modules, participants are required to complete 7-10 hours of self-study per week and a final research paper of 5000 words. The course costs €990, although some bursaries are available.

RedR UK offers an accredited five-day, face to face, Training of Trainers (ToT) course for the humanitarian sector, covering principles of adult learning and training and facilitation techniques specifically for the humanitarian context. The target audience for this course is human rights and humanitarian and development professionals who already have some experience and technical grounding in the profession, but want to be able to develop and facilitate workshops and capacity development initiatives in their subject. Course fees vary depending on the type of organisation that the prospective participant works for. Details of these and more short courses can be found at Reliefweb.

Register for a distance learning degree

For more long-term and in-depth options, universities are increasingly offering accredited courses that can be completed on-line or by distance learning, allowing professionals to continue working while enhancing their knowledge. This provides an excellent option for those who wish to combine work and study and enables professionals to gain accredited qualifications that increase employability and chances of career progression while continuing to accrue practical experience.

The University of London’s International Programmes offer post-graduate courses in human rights law, international development, international humanitarian law, global diplomacy and more. An LLM degree (specialisms include international human rights law), under the programme administered by Queen Mary and University College London, is made up of four courses, each consisting of four modules which can be studied independently or combined to make up the full LLM qualification. Each stand-alone module costs around £500 and can be counted towards a post graduate certificate in law (total cost £3,400), a post-graduate diploma in law (total cost £5,900) or a full LLM (£8,900). Other distance masters programmes offered by the University of London include an MA in Global Diplomacy with the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) which takes two years and costs £10,000, and an MA in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration with the School of Advanced Studies, which takes between two and five years to complete and costs £8,100. Full details can be found on the University of London’s International Programmes website.

Attend in-house trainings and seminars

Other more informal options are also available, and many organisations will organise in-house training and seminars; in addition, organisations might offer funding to employees to attend courses and conferences to enhance practical knowledge and professional skills, although such funding can be difficult to secure when on a fixed-term or short-term contract, as is often the case for human rights professionals. Without a mandatory CPD scheme in the human rights sector, much of the onus is upon individuals to seek out information and updates regarding best practices and legal developments in the field. To this end, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) publishes an online database of human rights jurisprudence which collates all the jurisprudence emanating from the UN mechanisms that consider individual complaints. The free database was designed and developed by the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights at Utrecht University and provides professionals with easy access to decisions of bodies such at the Committee against Torture (CAT), Committee on the Eliminations of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Human Rights Committee (CCPR), enabling human rights professionals to stay up to date with the most recent developments and interpretations of international human rights law.

Whatever form it takes, CPD is essential, both in terms of staying well informed about new developments and decisions, and to enable future career progression. From the many options available, there is a course or programme to suit a range of needs while also being compatible with the busy and demanding work schedules of human rights professionals.

The post 4 Ways to Improve Your Skills as Human Rights Professional appeared first on Human Rights Careers.

An internship can be an incredibly positive experience and can contribute to the economic empowerment of young people by opening new career avenues and providing an opportunity to learn new skills while making professional contacts. However, when an internship is unpaid, these objectives are severely undermined. In its 2016 World Youth Report on Youth Civic Engagement, the United Nations (UN) reported that it is not uncommon for young people to undertake back to back unpaid or low paid internships, placing them in an economically vulnerable position. The report suggests that stronger regulations and benchmarks of quality are necessary in order to prevent the economic exploitation of young people.

Read more: We have collected 5 Paid UN Internships for you.

It is not surprising, then, that the UN itself has come under increasing criticism for offering unpaid internships across its agencies; these criticisms have intensified in recent years and many readers will be familiar with the story of the UN intern from New Zealand who, in 2015, resorted to sleeping in a tent on the shores of Lake Geneva when he was unable to cover his living costs while working as an unpaid intern.

In the face of such scrutiny, some human rights organisations and international agencies are starting to pay attention to the demands of young professionals who see internships as an important step towards a career in the human rights sector. In a live Facebook event on 6 December 2017, the International Criminal Court (ICC) responded to numerous questions regarding the issue of unpaid internships and confirmed that funding will be available for some internships, commencing in 2018; presenters stated that funding would be prioritised for candidates from developing countries and those currently underrepresented at the court. While this is a positive move, unpaid internships remain a common feature within the human rights sector. For a profession that strives to achieve equality and to tackle issues of exploitation and discrimination, the irony has not gone unnoticed.

Criticisms of unpaid internships include the fact that they result in the exclusion of young people from disadvantaged economic backgrounds, particularly those from the global south, and that the practice of unpaid internships is often used to replace junior and entry level positions.

The Fair Internship Initiative (FII) advocates for high quality internships within the UN system that are widely accessible to all potential candidates. One of FII’s main goals is to establish an ‘intern living allowance’, so that interns who do not have funding from universities or other institutions are able to cover basic living costs such as accommodation, food and travel expenses. We Pay Our Interns is a further example of the increasing push for the provision of payment and support to interns; the coalition – started in 2016 in Geneva – states that there is “no justification whatsoever that could support any structure working towards human rights that does not pay its interns”. Its Charter, which includes a commitment to the provision of a monthly stipend of a minimum of CHF 500 (which equates to just over $500 USD) per month, has so far been signed by 45 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and human rights organisations.

While momentum is starting to build to change the practice of unpaid internships, finding such an opportunity remains difficult. Human Rights Careers has compiled a database of some of the opportunities available for paid internships in the field of human rights.

The post When will the United Nations address its unfair internship policy? appeared first on Human Rights Careers.

A 2015 survey by The Guardian (available here) reported that 79% of the 754 aid workers interviewed reported suffering from some kind of mental illness; of those, 93% said that the condition was work related. In a separate survey of human rights workers, 19% appeared to be suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – figures that are similar to levels of PTSD suffered by combat veterans and emergency first responders, as noted by Open Democracy. Workplace stress is common, but ordinary stress is not to be confused with work related ‘burnout’.

University of California is offering a free online course on Mindfulness and Resilience to Stress at Work! Register now! 

Human rights workers are particularly vulnerable to burnout; they work in an environment where they are constantly exposed to, either directly or indirectly, traumatic and distressing situations; they may be working with victims of violence and conflict, they may be deployed to dangerous and hostile locations and be exposed to situations where their safety is at risk, and they often work long and unsociable hours.

What is burnout?

Burnout is a particular type of stress and it isn’t simply a result of overwork. Burnout is the result of working in a stressful or demanding environment, or any situation which we throw everything into; often, burnout is cumulative. Mayo Clinic defines job burnout as ‘a special type of job stress – a state of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion combined with doubts about your competence and the value of your work.’ It is important to be able to recognise symptoms of burnout, both so that we can acknowledge when we experience it ourselves, and so that we can see signs of burnout in our colleagues and help them to find support. Symptoms can be mental, emotional, or even physical.

Symptoms of burnout include:

• Losing enthusiasm for your job, and even dreading going to work
• A loss of job satisfaction or a feeling of disillusionment in your career
• Feeling low in energy and not enjoying the things that used to give you pleasure
• Getting easily irritated, angry or upset
• Insomnia
• Change in appetite
• Trying to ignore your feelings by abusing or misusing drugs or alcohol
• Feeling distant from family and friends and trying to isolate yourself from social situations

How can human rights workers take steps to deal with burnout?

Mental health issues have been stigmatised in the past, causing people to avoid seeking professional help. This should not be the case and professional counselling may be the appropriate course of action. Many larger international organisations provide mental health support and counselling as part of their medical benefits. It is a positive sign that more and more organisations are developing policies regarding the welfare of their employees and taking steps to ensure that there are support services available. However, many smaller organisations and local NGOs are not able to offer medical or counselling services as part their employee benefit package; many human rights professionals work on a self-employed consultancy basis or on short term contracts where they are not entitled to staff benefits.

In addition to professional support, there are other steps that we can take to help deal with the problem of burnout:

• Buddy-systems, mentor networks or other peer support systems can help create a supportive working environment and are particularly useful in the field where human rights workers might feel particularly isolated
• It is important that staff are trained so that they know how to react to a colleague showing signs of burnout and also so that they can be self-aware and recognise the symptoms in themselves
• Exercise and self-care can help to deal with feelings of anxiety
• Relaxation techniques, such as meditation and yoga, can be helpful and can be practiced wherever you are (techniques can be found online for free)
• Try to structure your work day and try strategies to make you feel more in control of your work; make to-do lists and prioritize your work, and delegate where appropriate
• Communicate with colleagues and supervisors and discuss any work-related concerns or worries that you have
• Try to maintain a healthy work/ life balance and make time to see or speak to family and friends outside work

Accepting that you are suffering from burnout is not a sign of weakness or a lack ability; the phenomenon is not uncommon among those who work in the human rights and humanitarian sector, who are driven to help others, working in challenging and exhausting environments, often neglecting their own well-being in the process.

University of California is offering a free online course on Mindfulness and Resilience to Stress at Work! Register now! 

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