International Rights Advocates

AVAILABLE INTERNSHIP POSITIONS

Internship positions at IRAdvocates are unpaid and voluntary. Individuals who are interested in applying for a position should send their curriculum vitae and a letter of interest to IRAdvocates by email (rp@iradvocates.org) using the position as the subject of the email. We encourage interested candidates to apply as early as possible as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Legal Research - Volunteer/Intern

The Washington, DC based International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates) was formed, in part, as antidote to the “values” that put power and profit over our planet’s most precious asset; its people. Our work is designed to contribute to a more just world. We leverage human rights law via the courts (US and in other countries) to empower the victims of the full spectrum of human rights violations (from summary executions and forced labor to the denial of the rights to health and livelihood) to hold powerful entities, like multinational corporations, accountable for their suffering. Holding these powerful entities accountable and liable will contribute to changing their decision-making calculus, and thereby, motivate them to act in a more sustainable fashion.

IRAdvocates has thirteen pending pieces of litigation in US federal courts, most based on the Alien Tort Claims Act. For example:

ExxonMobil: The plaintiffs, a group of villagers living near the gas facility, claim that Indonesia security forces, paid for by ExxonMobil, committed atrocities including murder, torture, crimes against humanity, sexual violence, and kidnapping in the course of protecting the company's liquefied natural gas facilities.

Drummond:Plaintiffs, union mineworkers and the families of murdered union leaders, claim the company hired paramilitary gunmen in Colombia to torture, kidnap, and murder union leaders organizing at the Drummond mine.

Bridgestone-Firestone: Plaintiffs, workers on the Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia, claim Firestone is responsible for child and forced labor on their rubber plantation.

Job description:

An understanding of the need to contribute to ending lawless development; experience researching constitutional, international or property law issues; some study or experience with human rights law; strong writing, analytical skills and oral communication.

Research is needed to support brief writing and basic legal research on the application of human rights and foreign law in US courts. Specific research is needed to support research into possible legal theories to support new pieces of litigation. Research is needed on 9th Amendment, immunity, in-rem, comparative law and a number of human rights related issues.