University of Iceland - Human Rights Institute
Conference: Shifting Centres of Gravity in European Human Rights Protection
6-7 March 2014, The Nordic House, Sturlugata 5, Reykjavík
Deadline for registration: 1 March 2014

Purpose of the conference

The protection of human rights in Europe is at crossroads. The European Union (EU) is increasingly prioritising fundamental rights, for example by giving the Charter of Fundamental Rights the status of primary law and through the treaty-based obligation of accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Accession, once it takes place, expands the mandate of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and is likely to bring about fundamental structural changes to the system of human rights protection in Europe, as decisions of the ECtHR will be binding on the EU and its courts. However, pulling in a somewhat different direction than developments in EU law, the political momentum for bringing the responsibility for the protection of ECHR rights ‘home’ to the member states has been growing ever stronger. This repositioning of the centre of gravity of human rights protection is beginning to take shape in two new Protocols to the ECHR, which emphasise the principle of subsidiarity and the margin of appreciation enjoyed by the member states (Protocol No. 15), and introduce a preliminary reference procedure under the ECHR (Protocol No. 16). Finally, and in light of the crisis created by the overwhelming case-load of the ECtHR, the Brighton Declaration of 2010 has put the long-term review of the Court’s fundamental nature and role on the agenda before the end of 2019. Overall, therefore, the future of human rights in Europe faces major structural changes which could have significant consequences for access to justice and the quality of protection provided to victims of human rights violations.
This conference will explore these themes from the perspective that current developments call for a critical assessment of classical approaches to the three-dimensional relationship between the ECHR, EU law and national law; of the theories and tools utilised to navigate this relationship; and of the effects current developments may have on victims and vulnerable groups.

The draft programme and all practical details can be found here.

Center for European Studies, Maastricht University (The Netherlands)
The European Union: Peace, conflict and human rights
2 - 27 July 2014

Enrolment is now open for the summer school at Maastricht University's Center for European Studies. One of the courses offered from 2 - 27 July 2014 is entitled: The European Union: Peace, Conflict and Human Rights. The course is an opportunity to better understand how human rights are defended in the EU, following entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Special attention will be given to the Fundamental Rights Agency, the accession to the European Convention on Human Rights and the external policies regarding human rights. Students are also encouraged to take educational study trips to learn more about European Union institutions.

Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC), The Hague Secretariat
Legal Section Internship
Deadline for application: 10 January 2014

The Coalition for the International Criminal Court is the largest partnership in the world advancing the cause of international justice. Including more than 2,500 civil society organizations from 150 countries, the Coalition is leading the global fight to end genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity through a commitment to the core values of human rights and justice.

The Coalition is engaged in ensuring the effectiveness, independence, and accessibility of international justice and related national legal structures, while also responding to more urgent local and regional developments. The Coalition works with all aspects of the International Criminal Court, as well as with the broader network of governments, the United Nations, and other institutions involved in the international justice system. Through this committed global partnership, the Coalition’s guiding mission is to make justice universally accessible for victims of the gravest crimes in an effort to secure lasting peace.

The Coalition is offering an internship in the legal section.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency, Brussels
Internship
Deadline for application: 17 January 2014

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. It also has a mandate to help stateless people.

In more than six decades, the agency has helped tens of millions of people restart their lives. Today, a staff of some 7,685 people in more than 125 countries continues to help some 33.9 million persons.

UNHCR is currently seeking an intern to start 31 January 2014.

The Hague Academy of International Law - Centre for Studies and Research
The Rights of Women and Elimination of Discrimination
18 August - 5 September 2014, Peace Palace, The Hague (The Netherlands)
Deadline for application: 15 March 2014

The Centre is designed to bring together young international lawyers of a high standard from all over the world, to undertake original research on a common general theme which is determined each year by the Academy. The research work undertaken at the Centre may be included in a collective work published by the Academy.

The topic of 2014 is 'The Rights of Women and Elimination of Discrimination'. The topic is broad in order to bring together scholars specialising in either Public International Law or Private International Law, or both. The aim is to cover both theoretical and practical aspects, with regard to a variety of situations and contexts. Considering that the contributions are to be published later on in the form of a Centre book, the candidates are expected to be able to write fluently in either French or English.

Eurochild, Brussels
Policy and Advocacy Intern
Deadline for application: 5 January 2014

Eurochild is an international non-governmental organisation based in Brussels, which promotes the well-being and rights of children and young people at the European level and, through its membership, in the European countries. It is supported financially by the European Commission.

Eurochild is looking for an intern to assist in the development and implementation of Eurochild policy priorities, which currently include political advocacy on child poverty and well-being, campaign on quality alternative care for children, child and youth participation, and mainstreaming of children’s rights in all EU processes.

The Hague Academy of International Law, The Hague
Publications Manager
Deadline for application: 10 January 2014

The Hague Academy of International Law, founded in 1923, is a high level, post-academic institution for the study and dissemination of public and private international law. The Academy's well-known Summer Programme and its Centre for Studies and Research are held in the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands) during the months of July, August and September.
 
The lectures, given either in French or in English, in the programme of the summer courses are published in the well-regarded Recueil des Cours/Collected Courses. Six to eight new volumes are published each year (approximately 3000-4000 pages) which also appear electronically. In addition, some of these courses are published as pocketbooks (approximately 1800 pages) and e-books. The Academy also produces reports and collections of papers prepared by the Directors of Research and participants in its Centre (approximately 1000 pages). Finally, the Academy publishes on an occasional basis papers from colloquia that it sponsors on selected topics in the field of international law, catalogues and specific works.

The Academy seeks to appoint a Publications Manager with copy-preparing/proof-reading responsibilities. The appointee will take the position of the current Manager who retires on 30 June 2014.

Open Society Justice Initiative and Central European University
Summer School in Human Rights Litigation: Call for application
Budapest, 21 - 25 July 2014
Deadline for application: 14 February 2014

The Open Society Justice Initiative and Central European University invite applicants for the 2014 Summer School in Human Rights Litigation.

The summer school provides a unique opportunity for established human rights professionals to build on their experience and to develop their skills to successfully bring cases to the regional human rights systems and the UN treaty bodies, and to use those cases to achieve practical change. The curriculum will combine presentations, case studies, exercises, and discussion groups with preparatory work and further reading to ensure full maximum benefit for those attending the course. Participants will be invited to provide information on cases they are working on and those concrete examples will help shape discussion.

Scuola Superiore Sant ’Anna
Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT), Livorno (Italy)
HEAT I: 20 - 24 January 2014
HEAT II: 31 March - 4 April 2014
HEAT III: 5 May 2014
Deadline for application: 7 January 2014 (HEAT I), 10 March 2014 (HEAT II) and 16 April 2014 (HEAT III)

The Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa, Italy) is a public University and a centre of excellence which promotes education and research through under- and post-graduate studies in the field of Social and Applied Sciences. The International Training Programme for Conflict Management (ITPCM) is a post-graduate programme of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. It was established in 1995 with the aim to respond to the training needs of personnel involved in international field operations.

Background of the course
Hostile environment awareness plays an important role in the effectiveness and impact of crisis management missions; it is also a chief responsibility that each seconding or contracting actor has vis-à-vis its deployed personnel ('duty of care'), so as to further address the issue of their protection while operating in high risk operational theaters.

Hostile environment awareness is essential to coping with internal and external security threats on the ground and is conductive to:
• enhancing the resilience of personnel when working in hazardous environments;
• increasing the understanding of proactive security and of basic field measures;
• providing personnel with the basic tools and techniques needed to avoid potentially dangerous situations or to cope adequately with actual endangering ones in the field.

This course has been designed and developed jointly by the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and the Carabinieri Corps General Headquarters, precisely with the aim to address such needs.

Plan Europe, Brussels
Advocacy and Communications Trainee
Deadline for application: 4 December 2013

Plan Europe is a regional network within Plan International which links 11 European offices of Plan and our 50 programme countries around the world with the Plan EU Office in Brussels.Plan has the active support of 700,000 individual donors in EU member states through child sponsorship. Plan Europe strives to ensure that the promotion and protection of the rights of the child is a priority for the EU’s external action in policy and practice.

Plan Europe is engaging an Advocacy and Communications Trainee to support the communications, advocacy and campaign work by engaging the EU on advocacy issues and raising Plan’s profile, primarily through participating in meetings, sharing Plan’s advocacy messages, using communication tools, engaging with EU media and organising events.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Brussels
Internship
Deadline for application: 25 November 2013

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. It also has a mandate to help stateless people.

In more than six decades, the agency has helped tens of millions of people restart their lives. Today, a staff of some 7,685 people in more than 125 countries continues to help some 33.9 million persons.

UNHCR is currently seeking an intern to start on 2 January 2014 (with a hand-over in mid December 2013).

Law, War and Human Rights, Centre for the Study of Human Rights, London School of Economics and Political Science

Eight Monday evening classes: 27 January - 17 March 2014

Deadline for application: 28 November 2013

 

The Centre for the Study of Human Rights at LSE is a trans-disciplinary centre of excellence for international academic research, teaching and critical scholarship on human rights.

The Centre organizes an eight-week programme, carried out by way of a two-hour seminar each Monday evening, examines the laws of war and international criminal law from the perspective of international human rights law. It confronts the crucial questions: are human rights law, the laws of war and international criminal law three distinct disciplines? Have they now become so entwined that it is not possible fully to understand one without some knowledge of the other?

iCourts, Centre of Excellence for International Courts, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen
Two postdoctoral fellowships: Europe and New Global Challenges (EuroChallenge)
Deadline for application: 5 December 2013

iCourts, the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre of Excellence for International Courts, is dedicated to the study of international courts, their role in a globalizing legal order and their impact on politics and society. To understand the crucial and contemporary interplay of law, politics and society, the centre hosts a set of integrated interdisciplinary research projects on the causes and consequences of the proliferation of international courts.

Two 3-year postdoctoral fellowships are now available at iCourts.

JUSTICE, London
Winter Internship Programme 2014
Deadline for application: 29 November 2013

JUSTICE is an all-party law reform and human rights organisation. It promotes improvements to the British legal system – through research, education, lobbying and interventions in the courts. It is the UK section of the International Commission of Jurists. JUSTICE is a registered charity that relies on the generosity of members and supporters for the funds to carry out its work.

JUSTICE is now inviting applications for its Winter Internship Programme 2014.

European Network Against Racism (ENAR), Brussels
Internship in the policy department
Deadline for application: 15 November 2013

The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) is a network of member organisations across Europe. ENAR combats racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, promotes equality for all, and links local/regional/national initiatives with European Union initiatives. It is the voice of the anti-racist movement in Europe.

ENAR is seeking interns for the periods January - June 2014 and September - December 2014. With the aim of achieving an ethnic and gender balance in its team, ENAR endeavours to provide an optimum social and learning environment to all of its interns. People from groups affected by racial, ethnic or religious discrimination are especially encouraged to join our team.