Job Title: Legal Protection Intern
Reports to: Assistant Protection Officer
Location: Yerevan, Armenia
Duration: 6 months
Start date: 01 February 2019
Application closing date: 11 January 2019
Background Information
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a humanitarian and non-political organization mandated by the United Nations to protect refugees and help them find lasting solutions to their problems. UNHCR’s activities are based on a framework of international refugee and statelessness law and standards that includes the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions, as well as an array of international and regional treaties on human rights and humanitarian law.
The mandate of UNHCR is the international protection of refugees and stateless persons. The provision of international protection by UNHCR implies ensuring the basic human rights of refugees and stateless persons.
UNHCR has presence in the Republic of Armenia since 1992, under a Co-operation Agreement signed with the Government. UNHCR’s work in Armenia presently concentrates on capacity-building activities geared towards strengthening national authorities, laws and policies to ensure the proper handling of refugee and statelessness issues, the reception and care of refugees, the promotion of self-reliance of refugees and the realization of durable solutions. These are carried out in combination with other activities such as advocacy, information dissemination and monitoring.
The internship shall give an opportunity to familiarize the intern with all of UNHCR protection activities with a focus on statelessness.
Key Responsibilities
⦁ Conduct a research related to statelessness and international treaties, and present an analytical report and recommendations.
⦁ Assist with advocacy and research activities relating to legislative changes and policies regarding statelessness.
⦁ Assist with the preparation of Public Information and advocacy events, in particular regarding statelessness.
⦁ Help with country of origin information research related to statelessness issues.
⦁ Undertake legal research and drafting relevant documents (reports, briefs, survey findings, etc) in English.
⦁ Assist in monitoring of international legal developments, including judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as reports and views of the UN treaty bodies, in particular regarding statelessness.
⦁ Assist with the translation and/or proofreading of documents.
⦁ Assist in taking notes during meetings and writing of reports.
⦁ Support other protection activities of the office.
Qualifications Required
⦁ University degree in law.
⦁ Proven knowledge of, and interest in, international refugee and human rights law. Experience relating to statelessness would be an asset.
⦁ Good research and writing skills.
⦁ Fluency in Armenian and English (written and spoken).
⦁ Computer literacy.
Allowance
Interns who do not receive financial support from an outside party will receive an allowance to partially help to cover the cost of food, local transportation and living expenses.
Eligibility Criteria
Be a recent graduate from a university
* An individual whose father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister is a staff member of UNHCR, including a Temporary Appointment holder or a member of the Affiliate Workforce, is not eligible for an internship.
To Apply
Please send a cover letter and CV to armyeprt@unhcr.org by close of business of 11 January 2019 stating “Internship” in the subject line.