University of Minnesota
Human Rights Program
hrp@umn.edu
612-626-7947


Human Rights Program's home page.

EUROPE

International Organization for Migrations (IOM)
• Vilsonovo Setaliste 10, 71000  Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Phone: (387-33) 648-137/150/160
• Website: www.iom.ba
• Email: missionsarajevo@iom.int
• Language: English, Spanish, or French
• Salary: Unpaid but monthly sustenance allowance provided as well as insurance for occupational injury and illness.

After half a century of worldwide operational experience, IOM has become the leading international organization working with migrants and governments to provide humane responses to migration challenges. Established in 1951 as an intergovernmental organization to resettle European displaced persons, refugees and migrants, IOM has now grown to encompass a variety of migration management activities throughout the world. With offices and operations on every continent, IOM acts with its partners in the international community to: 1)Assist in meeting the growing operational challenges of migration management, 2)Advance understanding of migration issues, 3)Encourage social and economic development through migration, and 4)Uphold the human dignity and well-being of migrants.
Interns tend to be students approaching the end of their programme or graduates between 19 and 32 years of age. The main objectives of internships are to provide students with the opportunity to learn about IOM's activities, to gain initial work experience, and/or to prepare for a degree dissertation. IOM provides on the job training to interns so that both they and the organization can benefit. In addition to this, IOM evaluates interns who may eventually be included on the roster for future external vacancies. Furthermore, internships build links with other institutions and universities. Internships can last from 8 weeks to a maximum of 6 months. The initial contract can be renewed, provided that the overall duration does not exceed 6 months. Applications must be made in one of IOM's official languages (English, French or Spanish). Applications in other languages may be rejected. Deadlines vary—see website for current vacancies.

Anti-Slavery International
• Thomas Clarkson House, The Stableyard, Broomgrove Road, London, United Kingdom SW9 9TL
• Phone: (44-0207) 501-8920 
• Website: www.antislavery.org
• Email: info@antislavery.org OR m.gonzalez@antislavery.org
• Language: English
• Salary: unpaid

Anti-Slavery International is the world's oldest international human rights organization, founded in 1839. It is the only charity in the United Kingdom to work exclusively against slavery and related abuses. The organization works at local, national and international levels to eliminate the system of slavery around the world by: 1)Urging governments of countries with slavery to develop and implement measures to end it; 2)Lobbying governments and intergovernmental agencies to make slavery a priority issue; 3)Supporting research to assess the scale of slavery in order to identify measures to end it; 4)Working with local organizations to raise public awareness of slavery; 5)Educating the public about the realities of slavery and campaigning for its end.
Anyone interested in applying for a voluntary position, an internship or work experience should send a CV and cover letter to the address below outlining the kind of work that they would like to be considered for. Internships at Anti-Slavery tend to be more academic and project-led in content. Overseas applicants who are registered with a validated Student Exchange Scheme are invited to apply for an internship, (minimum three months.). Most interns will have been or are currently in the process of achieving a Bachelors or Masters degree in a related subject, i.e. International Relations or Human Rights. London-based students studying for a Masters degree may complete an internship to compliment their coursework.

Bohemia Corps, Czech Republic
• Drahobejlova 54, 190 00 Praha 9, Czech Republic
• Phone:
• Website: http://www.tolerance.cz/english/bohcorps.htm
• Email: bcorps@voi.cz
• Language:
• Salary: Unpaid

Bohemia Corps' mission is to encourage volunteerism among people living in the Czech Republic, through different educational and humanitarian projects for public benefit. Through the tolerance and respect project, Bohemia Corps is working to help in solving race-related problems in the Czech society. The organization created lesson plans for conversational English that are supposed to encourage discussions among students. The important aim of the project is to encourage attentive listening to other ideas than just "mine". Students, as well as their Czech and foreign teachers are learning how to become active citizens holding their own ideas. Variety of skills gained during these lessons should help students in becoming more tolerant towards other perspectives, ideas, people and cultures than just their own.
A decade after the fall of communism, Bohemia Corps holds a unique position in the country as it successfully brings together a large number of volunteers to work on projects to improve the country’s daily life in terms of tolerance, human rights understanding and implementation, and updated civic education. It also helps people redefine and do volunteerism in a society that still usually thinks of it with the taint of communist-forced memberships. Educating people for active democratic citizenship is an important component of what volunteers could be involved in. Please contact Bohemia Corps directly in order to receive the correct application requirements and internship procedures according to your experience and interest

Victims and Survivors Trust (VAST)
• 1A Rockmore Road, Belfast BT12 7PD, North of Ireland
• Phone: (028-90) 222181
• Website: http://www.victimsandsurvivorstrust.com
• Email: Send electronically on website OR vast@iol.ie
• Language:
• Salary: Unpaid
VAST is a charitable organisation based in the north eastern six counties of Ireland, drawing most of its membership from the West of the city of Belfast but with links to the rest of the island and to Britain. It is the Trust's belief that the most fitting memorial to all of the victims of the war on the two islands of Ireland and Britain will be a peaceful outcome brought about through dialogue, understanding and the promotion of the truth.
Internships include administrative work as well as accompaniment. Interns will learn the innerworkings of an NGO as well as gaining a deeper understanding of the situation in Ireland. Contact the organization directly to find information on current vacancies.

NIS-US Women’s Consortium
• Winrock International, 1621 North Kent Street, Suite 1200, Arlington, VA 22209, USA
• Phone: (703) 525-9430
• Website: http://yiec.euro.ru/e_w.htm and www.winrock.org
• Email: consort@winrock.kiev.ua
• Language: English

• Salary: Stipend given covers transportation, housing and meals 
The NIS-US Women's Consortium is a coalition of women's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of the New Independent States (the NIS) and the USA. The main goal of the NIS-US Women's Consortium is to facilitate interaction and collaboration among women's NGOs to help foster democratic, sustainable societies in the NIS and to improve the status of women in the NIS and worldwide. The NIS-US Women's Consortium is administered by Winrock International and has two offices: in Arlington (Virginia, the USA), and in Kyiv (Ukraine). 
Winrock’s volunteer assignments work a variety of sectors and areas. The purpose of the Volunteer Program is to help host organizations solve specific problems. Assignments range from agriculture to women’s employment, from business skills to organic certification training. Opportunities change frequently and current opportunities are listed on the website. Approximately half of the assignments focus on agricultural related topics. Volunteer assignments typically range from two to four weeks, including travel time. A small number of volunteers are fielded for up to eight weeks. Their Volunteer Program provides for round-trip economy airfare, en route expenses (including the costs of passports, visas, and required immunizations), and a per diem to cover housing, meals and incidental expenses. A travel advance will be provided via a wire transfer to your bank account about one week prior to your departure.

Peace People
• 224 Lisburn Road, Belfast. BT307NP. N. Ireland.
• Phone:(44) (0)2890 663465
• Website: www.peacepeople.com/
• Email: Info@peacepeople.com
• Language:
• Salary: Unpaid

The Peace People began in 1976 as a protest movement against the on-going violence in Northern Ireland. Over 100,000 people were involved in the initial movement and two of the founders, Mairead Corrigan (now Mairead Corrigan Maguire) and Betty Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize for that year. Since its inception the organization has been committed to building a just and peaceful society through nonviolent means - a society based on respect for each individual and that has at its core the highest standard of human and civil rights. Nonviolence is at the centre of the Peace People's approach to building a just and peaceful society. They draw their inspiration from historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The Peace People work with young and old to try to heal divisions, which keep us apart and feed the fear, the violence and injustice. By bringing people together and getting to the heart of the issues and experiences, which shape and separate us, the Peace People help to challenge prejudice and conquer fear. Volunteer opportunities are limited but please email the above to inquire.

Commonwealth Medical Association
• BMA House, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JP, United Kingdom
• Phone: (44-20) 7272-8492
• Website:
• Email: Send electronically on website
• Language:
• Salary: Unpaid

The main objective of the Commonwealth Medical Association (CMA) is to strengthen the capacity of medical and other health professional associations in developing countries to promote the health and well-being of their communities. Having regard to the critical health issues involved, its activities are concerned mainly with women's and youth health, sexual and reproductive health and the ethical and human rights implications of providing health information and services in such countries.
A past Minnesota intern had duties that included making preparations for a series of one day workshops to be held in five African countries; preparing articles for the CMA publication CommonHealth; preparing a background paper for the CAM roundtable on Women’s right to health that included women’s sexual and reproductive health; and assisting with the arrangements for the roundtable. Contact the association directly to receive more information about an internship that would suit you.

Helsinki Committee for the Republic of Macedonia
• Ul. Dame Gruev 8/5, PO Box 58, 1000 Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
• Phone: 389 (0)2 119 073 AND 389 (0)2 290 469
• Website: http://www.mhc.org.mk/eng/a_kontakt.htm
• Email: helkom@soros.org.mk OR helkom@mhc.org.mk
• Language: Fluency in both spoken and written English
• Salary: Unpaid

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of Republic of Macedonia is a non-governmental organization whose major duty is to observe and inform, on the local and international level, on the respect for the human rights, in accordance to the provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and other accompanying documents which determine the international standards for the respects of human rights. The Helsinki Committee also provides legal help in the domain of the protection of the human rights, on local and international grounds.
The Helsinki Committee is open for co-operation of any kind. As an institution they don't have any special procedure for obtaining an internship or researcher status for the candidate. For those interested, please send a letter of interest, a CV and the field you are interested in. Spoken and written English proficiency required.

Danish Institute for Human Rights
• 56 Strandgade, 1401 Copenhagen K, Denmark
• Phone: (45) 3 269-8888
• Website: http://www.humanrights.dk/frontpage/
• Email: Send electronically on website
• Language:
• Salary: Unpaid

  The Danish Centre for Human Rights was established by a parliamentary decision on 5 May, 1987. The objective of the Centre is to gather and develop knowledge about human rights nationally, regionally, and internationally. The work of the Danish Centre for Human Rights includes research, information, education, and documentation relating to Danish, European, and international human rights conditions.  The Centre considers human rights work to be interdisciplinary, and therefore the staff have a broad range of professional backgrounds such as law, anthropology, sociology, economics, humanities, journalism, and pedagogy.
A previous intern worked in conjunction with Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights to provide research and other support to the Committee’s Project on Racism in Europe. To receive more information on possible internships, please contact the organization directly via phone or their website.