Networking comes naturally to many people, it comes down to confidence and faith in your abilities and a little self awareness. For some it’s a gift but others it’s a bit more daunting. Within most professional careers networking is essential as they say it’s not what you know but who you know. I believe this to be very true also for the human rights sector. Yet how do you sell yourself without sounding desperate or having an inflated ego? Well, networking is simply a marketing tool and thankfully it is something which can be learned, honed and developed. From face-to-face human rights conferences, UN meetings,  to less formal social opportunities like coffee or after-work drinks, there are also a wide variety of online and social networking methods including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogs.

Networking is the ability to connect and form common grounds of interest with people. Career wise it has the ability to open many doors and opportunities for you at any stage of career. Networking and meeting the right people can reward you free advice, build your reputation through word-of-mouth referrals and increase your credibility, trust, professionalism, knowledge and expertise.

The Do’s and Don’ts networking:

DO’S

• Be confident – Sitting alone and not working the room is not beneficial for anyone. Mingle! Don’t be afraid to speak to people, go and say hello. At the end of the day they will probably be relieved you made the first move, as they are most likely just as nervous as you.
• Be prepared with your “Elevator Pitch” – What is it that you want? Are you trying to get a job, promote your project, start a blog or an internship. Be fully prepared with your objectives, why it is important, how you will make it happen and what you need to complete it. Be brief but concise and accurate when speaking. Ensure you are engaging your listener, your pitch must be interesting – leaving them to want to know more. Most importantly make it memorable! You want to stand out from all the other pitches they will hear today.
• Business cards – Ensure you have enough with you as they are a great way to exchange details. After you meet each person be sure to make a little note on the back of their card so you remember exactly who they are. Also, when handing your card to them write the place you met so they remember you!
• Follow up – This is the most ESSENTIAL part. You MUST follow up and do so quickly. Email them a few days later and write in a friendly tone. Thank them for giving you their time and compliment them related to their work.
• Pay attention – Listen and learn from what people say. Be attentive and demonstrate that you have a genuine interest in their work.
• Quid-pro-quo – You cannot expect to get something without offering anything in return. Offer free help, favors, advice or reduced cost services.

Prepare questions – When networking you must be prepared with questions. Do some homework of who you are going to meet. The more questions you have the more fruitful the conversation. Really think about what you want to learn from them.

DON’TS

• Don’t be shy– Bite the bullet and go for it. There is absolutely no point in being quiet and shy. Be confident!
• Don’t spend all your time with ONE person – Be sure to socialise fully and mingle as best you can. Spend quality time with each person to make a real connection and then move on. It’s best to speak to as many people as you can.
• Don’t just talk about yourself – Self promotion is an artful tact therefore it is important not to over sell yourself. Be confident but not arrogant. Demonstrate your knowledge factually and don’t be afraid to ask questions. This shows your curiosity and passion on the subject.
• Don’t forget to follow up – As mentioned above this is THE KEY to success.

Networking online:

Networking in person is the most powerful medium as nothing beats a face to face connection but at the sametime in today’s world social media is a hugely valuable networking resource. It creates channels to reach people that you may never necessarily have the chance to meet in person. For example if you are part of an academic network or follow someone online then writing comments and posing questions on an article they have written or in a members forum, can begin to develop a relationship with the person. Twitter can be one ideal platform to make this initial connection.

Another lucrative platform is of course LinkedIn. You need to give a lot of consideration to your profile here. Think about what your profile is saying about you. Ensure your profile is updated with all your latest jobs and qualifications. Your profile picture is also important, ensure it is friendly and professional. Also on LinkedIn: Each person on the network gets their own Web address (or URL), making you searchable by Google and Yahoo! Therefore by simply typing your name into any search engine your LinkedIn profile will appear.

Always remember you will be judged by you social media profiles. This is the information that people will form their opinion of you on so ensure your profile is up-to-date, correct and complimentary.

It is important to remember that building relationships takes time steadily and developing a professional network requires daily attention, and does not happen overnight. Be patience and always follow up!

The post Do’s and Don’ts of Networking in the Human Rights Sector appeared first on Human Rights Careers.

Internships are great tools to improve your chances as a job applicant and thus it is a worthwhile investment in becoming an intern. Internships do more than just look good on your resume. You can build a network of professional and personal contacts; develop the skills employers are seeking; and build confidence, motivation, and professional work experience. Below we speak with Cara O’Donnell from Australia to learn about her internship experiences and hear her advice for upcoming human rights interns.

Cara, can you tell us a little about your background as a lawyer?

I’m a 4th year commercial lawyer at a full-service commercial law firm in Melbourne. I am in the Commercial Disputes team, primarily working in insolvency and bankruptcy law.  I never intended to do commercial law, however my uni (Deakin University) had a commercial focus and required all students to complete a 30-day placement and elective subjects, which peaked my interest in human rights law. However, in order to be admitted to practice as a lawyer in Victoria, you need to do a further year of training/study (such as practical legal training as a graduate lawyer). Graduate positions mostly only exist with the larger firms (although some suburban firms will offer something similar) and those larger firms have great resources and training. So, I did my graduate year with an international firm in Melbourne and rotated through corporate and litigation groups, before moving to a boutique firm and then finding my way to my current role.

Why have you decided to do voluntary work and internships?

I had always wanted to do, and was sure I would do, human rights law. But there are few opportunities in Melbourne in human rights law and any that did/do exist, understandably require previous experience. So, over the years I have volunteered with various NGOs including the Public Interest Law Clearing House (PILCH now called Justice Connect) which helps the most marginalised members of society; the AED Legal Centre which works with employment and education discrimination often due to disability; the Asylum Seeker Refugee Centre and other non-legal volunteer positions. The firm I work for has a strong pro bono team and I volunteer through them, with the Brotherhood of St Lawrence, attending Breakfast Club on Tuesday mornings where we help to provide a cooked breakfast for local kids in Fitzroy, Melbourne. The families of most of these kids newly arrived in Australia.

Volunteering and interning has helped me to become more engaged with my community and better understand the real difficulties people have. They have also provided me with great opportunities to better understand areas of law I might be interested in, without making huge career changes. The experiences both professional and personally have been invaluable.

What internships have you done?

During my undergrad degree, I did volunteer internships with Justice Connect (formerly PILCH) part-time for 12 months and AED Legal Centre part-time for a semester.

I was also a volunteer member of Young UN Women (Victoria) as a member of the policy team.

I recently completed an internship with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), in Cape Town. The SAHRC has a mandate under the South African Constitution to investigate and assess individual complaints and/or allegations of human rights violations; and also, undertakes education programs. There are nine provincial SAHRC offices, with Cape Town being in the Western Cape. We worked on a few major projects including one focused one early childhood development and otherwise on many difficult individual complaints regarding healthcare; education and basic housing.

I am currently ¾ of my way through my Master of Laws at Melbourne University, which I am studying part-time. My internship with SAHRC will also be credit as the subject International Legal Internship. I always regretted not doing overseas study during my undergrad degree and this was a great opportunity to make amends! Working full-time and studying part-time is tough, however I really enjoy studying (big nerd!) but found it overwhelming to just go and read the law – where would I even start?!

What are you doing now and did doing internships help you?

Now I am in the process of working out what this means for me long term. Whilst I have loved commercial law and it has been really good for me, I am just not sure that it will be my forever job. I work at a great law firm, with a wonderful team of people, which is something really difficult to find. I also work with a terrific female partner, who is a great mentor and colleague – strong female role-models are not always easy to find! But, there are days when the work that I’ve been able to do, not just with SAHRC but with each of the organisations I have volunteered or interned with, have seemed far more valuable than any commercial law. Whether that means I go back to Australia and look to move across practice areas, I’m not sure. There are also many transferrable skills which I learnt and developed in my internships, that even if I choose to stay in commercial law, it will have been a huge benefit to me.

Perhaps I will just finish my Masters and then take some time to reflect on my future plans! There is no hurry to make any big decisions.

I have found people working in human rights to be passionate about the work they do, and also incredibly resilient. Resilience is a life skill which as lawyers, we don’t often have enough of and I have no doubt the internships have helped me developed resilience.

What was the best part of doing an internship at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)?

The work at the SAHRC was so different to anything I could have done back home, even if it were in human rights, for a few reasons. Firstly, South Africa’s history of Apartheid and racial discrimination and tensions, many of which continue today. Secondly, their modern constitution has a Bill of Rights, which Australia doesn’t have. Thirdly, the levels of poverty and huge disparity amongst the population. Fourth, the prevalence of corruption. And, many others are why the internship was unlike anything I could have undertaken back in Australia.

South Africa is amazing and truly spectacular. But it is so hard to articulate why. Cape Town for example, is a melting pot of cultures and diverse people and people who are so happy to be there. Uber drivers from places like Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi are constantly teaching me more about politics and history than any university lecturer ever has! And it’s a brilliant place to live because of all the outdoor activities. There are beautiful beaches, hiking, abseiling, wineries, and spectacular wildlife all within a few hours’ drive, if not around the corner. Goodness, I sound like an ad!

What advice do you have for anyone thinking of doing an internship?

1. There is no such thing as being under-skilled or inexperienced when it comes to internships.
2. Start planning as early as possible, because if you wait until you get somewhere to work out how to best spend your time, it will be too late and you’ll be finishing!
3. Take people up on any offer(s) of assistance. Whether you have a friend who knows someone in that industry, or if its overseas or interstate and they have a cousin there, make the time to contact them and get the inside scoop.
4. Absolutely do it. It’s a safe way of “testing” out new things and from my experience, people are so grateful you are taking the time out of your studies, your career, or your life to generously donate your time to their organisation/efforts. Don’t underestimate how grateful people are for the help that you can provide.

The post Internship Report: South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) appeared first on Human Rights Careers.

We caught up with a former UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) Country Director – Hendrica Okondo to find out what it is like to work directly on women’s rights from within the UN system. Mrs. Okondo worked for UNIFEM for almost one decade and prior to that she was a Senior Gender Advisor to the UN World Food Programme, she holds a Masters in Public Health and Environmental Science and a BA. in Agricultural Sciences and Entomology. She is now a Global Programme Manager at the World YWCA working on Women’s Sexual and Reproductive health rights, VAW (Violence Against Women) and HIV.

UN Women was born through a UN reform agenda merging together different UN agencies that previously worked on women’s rights. One of these agencies was the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). In 1976 UNIFEM was created to support women’s empowerment and gender equality. It worked extensively on developing gender responsive budgets Southern Africa, East Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central America and the Andean region. UNIFEM was the pioneer in raising awareness throughout the UN system of gender responsive budgets as a tool to strengthen economic governance in all countries.

What did your role in UNIFEM consist of and what specific issues did you address?

I was the Country Director for UNIFEM Tanzania and I managed the one UN Gender Programme. It focused on gender and governance, gender budgeting, sexual gender based violence (SGBV) and gender audits. We also chaired multi stakeholder gender working groups and a gender and HIV working group. This was made possible by using the ILO toolkit: Participatory Gender Audit. A gender audit enhances the collective capacity of the organisation to examine its activities from a gender perspective and identify strengths and weaknesses in promoting gender equality issues. It monitors and assesses the relative progress made in gender mainstreaming.

What was the most challenging part of your job?

Personally, I have to say that the most challenging part was definitely trying to negotiate space for gender and women empowerment issues with big UN agencies such as United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) because they did not recognise our mandate and also had very competent gender officers they did not give financial and moral support.

Why did you decide to leave and work in the civil society sector?

The bureaucracy of the UN was a barrier for reaching women at community level and it seemed as if we giving more money to the government system rather than creating an enabling environment for women’s empowerment. As we know, women need economic assets, social protection and justice to claim their rights so while engendering the policy frameworks and developing accountability mechanisms for delivery on gender equality commitments is important. We need to put women and girls in a space where they have opportunities to claim those rights. Therefore, in short I missed sitting under the tree, just talking to women and girls.

How is working for an NGO different to working for the UN?

I like working in a NGO- civil society organisation (CSO) as the space is more dynamic, it is easier to link the local to global and in general most processes are less formal. Furthermore, it is easier to advocate without having to worry about a UN member state position and easier to get consensus on advocacy issues thus there are more opportunities to innovate.

What advice would you give to young people who want to work for the UN?

I highly recommend that young people especially young women do internships at the UN because it is a very useful experience. However, we need to advocate for paid internship as too many UN agencies are using free labour of youth to meet their funding gap and that is not fair! We need more developed countries to provide JPO funding for least developed countries (LDC) in order to promote diversity and give youth from the global south access to UN careers. Reflecting on my time as a UN staff member, I enjoyed the good pay obviously and the easy access to many countries through the use of the UN LP – a valid travel document, which can be used like a national passport (in connection with travel on official missions only). Ascompared to now I need a new passport every year full of visas. I am sharing this as I want to mention a key point that this has made me reflect upon very much: we need to lobby for work mobility for all young people! You ask me what advice I have for young people and I really think that it is not fair that young people from the global south have no access to schools, universities and workplaces in the global north because of migration policies that discriminate poor countries. Yet at the wealth in the north was made and still is made by exploiting the south, we cannot talk of globalisation when politicians through fear mongering are blocking mobility of youth employment. Therefore, considering all of this my advice to young people is not to give up. I am from the global south and through education, determination and support I have made it this far. Together, we must lobby for changes on national, regional and global policies to generate more economic opportunities for young people from the global south especially young women!

The post Working as Women’s Rights Director for the UN [Interview] appeared first on Human Rights Careers.

 

Refugees have skills, ideas, hopes and dreams… They are also tough, resilient and creative, with the energy and drive to shape their own destinies, given the chance. – UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi

Globally, we are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. Across the world an unbelievable 65.3 million people have had to leave their homes. More than half of them are children under the age of 18. When we look closely at the figures 21.3 million individuals have become refugees and 10 million people are now stateless being denied a nationality and their basic human rights.

The work of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is now more vital than ever before. It is estimated that almost 34,000 people are forcibly displaced everyday! UNHCR are mandated to support and assist displaced persons in various ways such as immediate emergency assistance, legal protection, administration, community services, public affairs and health.

In 2015 alone, over 1 million people – refugees, displaced persons and other migrants – have made their way to the European Union (EU), either escaping conflict in their country or in search of better economic prospects. By June 2016 around 156,000 people had reached Europe, mainly fleeing the war in Syria. Refugees are distinct from economic migrants, insofar as refugees cannot return to ​their country of origin, because they might face serious threats to their life or freedom. ​

Elizabeth Wilson worked as a UNHCR field worker for several years providing emergency assistance and access to basic rights such as education and healthcare in refugee camps across the world. We caught up with Elizabeth to find out what it is like to work in such settings:

How did you first get involved with UNHCR?

I first started out as a junior professional officer working in the UNHCR Kenya country office. I was there for two years implementing our monitoring and evaluation programmes. I was then moved to Kibondo refugee camp in Tanzania and worked as a field associate coordinating required humanitarian relief materials. For the past year I have been on mission in Greece working in refugee camps there (see map below). I was stationed in Cherso refugee in Northern Greece, which housed around 700 Syrian, Iraqi and Kurdish people, mostly families. It can be a very difficult reality for families as they wait to be relocated in another European country. The process itself can take several months with numerous interviews taking place to determine their selected final destination country.

What have been your main responsibilities?

I have mostly worked on protection ensuring adequate shelter in humanitarian emergencies. We distribute tents, plastic sheeting and matting; develop emergency strategies, tools and guidelines. Whilst in Greece I was coordinating the distribution of tents, blankets and solar charged lamps. I was also assisting the coordination of all the respective partner agencies and NGOs in the refugee camp. UNHCR has a long history of collaboration in emergency preparedness and response. In order to provide the crucial aspects of protection and assistance we partner with a variety of actors. This includes operational partners, a wide range of government, UN and NGO partners who contribute expertise and financial resources to the collective response.

What barriers do refugees face accessing their rights?

Fleeing war, conflict, persecution or natural disasters is the most inhumane experience a person can suffer. It is terrifying and can leave entire families with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Therefore, refugees face enormous barriers to accessing their very basic human rights such as food, water and shelter. My work involves a magnitude of patience, resilience and compassion. It is heart breaking to witness children who are refugees, not being allowed to enrol in the local schools of their host countries. For example as they do not yet have official legal status and in some cases cannot leave the refugee camps, they miss out on vital periods of education. This is why the UNHCR supports education programmes in refugee camps so that children can continue to receive a comprehensive education and are not left behind.

What gives you the strength to keep going?

A simple smile across the face of a refugee, it might sound crazy but a smile is what pushes me to keep going. I am inspired to stay focused on my job. When the pressure and stress gets too much and I feel like there is no end to the challenges we encounter on a daily basis I remember those smiles and the hope in their eyes. This winter for example I will remember forever a young Syrian mother came to see me as her baby was sick and had been up all night crying, it was -20 degrees that night with high winds. She came with her baby in her arms and continued to smile and even made jokes. These extraordinary people have taught me to appreciate the little things in life. I really don’t think I have a right to give up.

What has been your most memorable experience?

Listening to the testimonies of refugees and knowing what they have experienced will stay with me forever. Their sheer strength and resilience is overwhelming. I have so many memories, it is very difficult to choose just one.  A major success for me personally happened in Tanzania, when I was able to implement an education programme for young women and girls. Refugee camps can be dangerous places sometimes with lack of security and girls can be very vulnerable. Therefore, I recognised the need to create a safe space for young women and girls to hangout, be themselves, learn, have fun and exchange stories. It was amazing for me to witness the positive impact of creating this girls only safe space. We began to deliver sexual health programmes and also teach girls about menstruation and healthy sanitation. I believe this programme provided these girls with the necessary health information and also helped created positive relationships.

Why do you think the work of UNHCR is so important?

It is essential that the UNHCR exists and continues to function. The world is facing unprecedented conflicts and disasters destroying whole communities and the planet. Now is the time for governments, NGOs, foundations and corporations to work together for the greater good of humanity. UNHCR is a critical instrument for providing the necessary care and support to vulnerable people everywhere. It is a neutral diplomatic agency that can translate across cultures, language and religions.

What advice would you give to a young professional interested in UNHCR?

One of the best ways into any organisation is to apply for an internship. I have many colleagues who started their careers this way. Secondly, just like I did you should take a look at the UN junior professional officer programme. It is highly competitive however if you are successful it is an up hill slope. The work experience, exposure and training you will receive are extremely invaluable. The human rights field is a emotionally charged sphere and can be traumatic, however knowing that you are saving lives and healing emotional scars of people is the greatest reward anyone can experience.

The post How to work for UNHCR appeared first on Human Rights Careers.