Advice on getting an internship at the ICTR (and elsewhere)
March 8th, 2009 • ICL, ICTR Internship, University
I recently got an e-mail asking for some advice on landing an internship at the ICTR. I’ve reproduced below some of what I e-mailed back.
First, getting to know people is probably the easiest and quickest way to securing an internship. The ICTR, ICTY, SCSL and other tribunals all get thousands of applications, most of them from excellent students with lots of experience. To make sure yours gets read, let alone approved, it can vastly help to have someone you can e-mail/call/bug about its progress. I applied for the SCSL in August 2008 and finally managed to call them in January 2009. I don’t think they had even looked at my application until I talked to someone.
Second, (relevant) extra-curricular activities are very helpful. Once you reach a certain level of marks the rest of your time at university becomes more important. Join your law schools journal, if there’s one on international or international criminal law even better; volunteer with faculty members; do the human rights/ICL/IL moots. Not only will this expose you to the content of international law, but it will also help you get to know people who are interested in or working in international law, and who can give you advice and information on upcoming opportunities or who to talk to at different institutions. Through my involvement in a human rights moot I made a friend who referred some ICTY volunteer work to me from a barrister in London who was crucial to me securing a place at the ICTR.
Third, try and get some experience. This includes both ‘real world’ and ‘academic’ work. Real world work can be found at law firms, with barristers and at community legal clinics like the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre. I would think that work in criminal law would be more attractive then corporate work, though I’m sure all experience is valuable. Working in academia would be great if the opportunity comes up. It’s a great chance to refine research skills and get to know faculty (see below), plus if you do work on international criminal law or the institution you want an internship at that’s even better.
Fourth, get to know your lecturers, particularly the international law ones. They’ll be key to knowing where to apply and connecting you with other people and job opportunities. Also, they are crucial for getting a good reference and you’ll need two of them when applying at the ICTR.
Finally, think about where you are applying and why you want to do an internship. I’m hoping it’s more than just because you want a reason to safari in Tanzania. This will help you write a good cover letter (and make it mean something), plus if you start thinking early enough you can adjust your university assignments to help your application. This is especially important with the ICTR as they require a sample of written work on the ICTR and an essay topic that you’ll be writing about – having something to show your interest is a lot easier if you’ve been thinking about if for a while.
Hopefully those tips of are some help to some people. I’m certainly no expert, but having talked to people when trying to get my internship the above seems to be reasonably solid advice.
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