Internship Opportunities: Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative

Internship opportunities available with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) in Delhi, Accra and London. Anyone interested in the Ghana opportunities are invited to write directly to Ms. Vinu Sampath Kumar (vinu@humanrightsinitiative.org) who can put you in direct contact with the Ghana office. Descriptions of Delhi opportunities specifically are included below:

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative

Probable research areas for interns in the Delhi office - 2017

Access to Information (A2I)

Research studies towards strengthening access to information in India:

·       The A2I team will be undertaking a comparative study of proactive disclosure of information on police and prison department websites in Commonwealth countries with Right to Information (RTI) laws, and what India can learn from them.

·       Another area of research will be to prepare our existing research database of court decisions on right to information in India for an annotated edition of the RTI Act and its web-based adaptation.

Access to Justice (A2J): Police Reforms team

Research studies on accountable and democratic policing in India:

·       The A2J Police team is involved in a three-year EU funded programme on institutional bias in policing. The project involves various research studies on perceptions and institutional bias of the police as experienced by specific vulnerable groups, including Muslims, Dalits and women.

·       The team is also undertaking another project funded by the British High Commission on police response to complaints of crimes against women in India.

Access to Justice (A2J): Prison Reforms team

Research studies on prison oversight and accountability in India:

·       The team is undertaking RTI-based studies on: the implementation of legal aid schemes, the functioning of oversight mechanisms, and use of technology to check unnecessary detention.

Strategic Initiatives Programme (SIP)

Monitoring human rights performance and obligations of India and other Commonwealth countries:

·       SIP will be producing monitoring reports on Commonwealth member states’ implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG16 which deals with justice, accountability and transparency. The team will produce shadow reports which will be presenting at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) during the SDG global review in 2017.

·       SIP team is also involved in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process for Commonwealth member states at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva.

·       SIP’s ongoing activity involves building civil society network in Commonwealth countries for concerted advocacy on issues related to access to justice and access to information.

Note:

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, but an indicative list of probable areas of research based on current commitments. Specific tasks will be assigned taking into account the intern’s capability, interest, and the requirements of the team at the time.    

For more information, visit their website.

** Please note: This education abroad/internship opportunity is not affiliated with the University of Minnesota and has not been fully vetted. Notification of an opportunity should not be construed as an endorsement by the University of Minnesota. For information regarding participation on any opportunity abroad, contact the Learning Abroad Center on the Twin Cities campus. All other campuses should consult the appropriate education abroad office for their campus.