Call for Applications: OSI Human Rights Internship

October 1, 2008

The Human Rights and Governance Grants Program (HRGGP) and the Network Scholarships Program (NSP) of the Open Society Institute announce the OSI Human Rights Internship.

The internship is intended to attract recent graduates of master's and LLM programs in the social sciences, law, and humanities to the human rights sector, giving them the opportunity to gain first-hand research experience in a human rights NGO. The program is designed to be beneficial to both the interns and their host organizations; interns will receive a scholarship and the opportunity to work in one of the leading human rights and accountability advocacy organizations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Internships are fully paid and are envisioned to last from 6 to 12 months, depending on the research topic and scope. All internship positions are in the field of human rights, government accountability, or penal reform.

Host NGOs

In 2009, the OSI Human Rights Internship received expressions of interest from 31 potential hosting organizations. These organizations are international and local human rights and accountability groups working in the region of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The list of participating NGOs and proposed research areas is attached below. For the upcoming year, OSI will support up to 10 internships total, taking into consideration thematic and geographic distribution.

Eligibility

Eligible candidates must be citizens of Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Mongolia and:

recipients of UK OSI/Chevening fellowships;
recipients of German OSI/DAAD fellowships;
graduates of Central European University’s Human Rights Program and Comparative Constitutional Law Program in Hungary.

Eligible candidates will have graduated in the past three years, starting from alumni of the 2005-2006 academic year from LLM or MA studies in the social sciences, law, and humanities. Please check your eligibility before applying.

To Apply

Step 1: Contact potential hosting organization from the list announced by 2009 OSI Human Rights Internship
Please contact the hosting organization where you wish to work. You are asked to submit your CV, a letter of intent explaining your background, reasons why you chose this internship, and two letters of reference from an academic source or an NGO representative to the designated contact person. On the basis of those documents the host organizations will do a pre-selection of the candidates. All contact details can be found in the attached list of participating NGOs. Deadline for contacting hosting organizations is Monday, October 20, 2008.

Step 2: Negotiations between the NGOs and the selected candidates
Host organizations will start a selection process, where they will contact those candidates they find most promising to negotiate the terms of the internship. During the negotiation phase, the applicant and host organization need to agree on the research topic, duration, and financial conditions of the internship.

Step 3: Joint application
Once the host organizations have finalized negotiations with the selected candidates, a joint application must be submitted to the Human Rights and Governance Grants Program by Monday, November 3, 2008. Application guidelines will be provided to host NGOs.

Step 4: Final decisions on the Human Rights Internships
Final decisions on applications will be made by OSI and communicated by the end of November 2008. Funding decisions will be contingent upon the organizations’ and candidates’ ability to provide a well-defined job and research description, a convincing placement and mentoring plan, and a realistic budget. Priority will be given to applications that have a clear link to advocacy initiatives and those that address HRGGP priority issues and/or countries. Successful candidates need to demonstrate a strong commitment to human rights and the selected subject of research.

Step 5: Internships
In 2009, OSI will support up to ten Human Rights Internships. Once an application is approved, OSI will provide funds covering the entire period of the internship, including costs of visa and travel, as well as a stipend, but excluding administrative and supervision costs incurred by the NGO. Interns are expected to work full time on the organization’s premises and to reside in the hosting organization’s country for the entire period of the internship.

Internships will begin from January 2009 and last from 6 to 12 months.

OSI will monitor the internships and request interim and final reports both from the intern and the hosting organization.