ILHR Fellows at a September 2011 dinner in their honor. Standing, from left to right: Mateya Kelley, Carson Thomas, Kari Rotkin, Julia Torti, Bradley Nicholson, Diana Tseng, Maria Alejandra Etchegorry, Isabelle Figaro and Francesca Corbacho; seated: Joseph Rome and Scott Grossman
About
The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, in cooperation with the Institute for International Law and Justice, administers a fellowship program for selected NYU School of Law students that combines academic and practical experience in international law and human rights. The International Law and Human Rights Fellowship Program offers the opportunity to complete a specialized training program in international law, undertake a summer internship at an elite institution, and complete a substantial research paper growing out of that work experience. Established in 2002, the Fellowship Program is undertaken with support from the Public Interest Law Center (PILC) among others. A modest stipend is available for students selected for the Fellowship.
ILHR Fellows Julianne Marley (Class of 2014, far left), Christel Tham (Class of 2014, second from right) and Omri Sender (LLM 2012, far right) with a colleague during their 2012 internships at the International Law Commission in Geneva.
Eligibility and Application Process
Eligible applicants for the Fellowship are persons who are at the time of application full-time first-year JD, second-year JD, LLM and JSD students at NYU School of Law, in both New York and Singapore academic programs. The application, interview and selection process is competitive and rigorous and occurs during the Fall Semester. A description of Fellowship Program application requirements and process can be found in the 2012-2013 Fellowship Application.
Components
Fellowships generally focus on the areas of human rights, transitional justice and international law and have three main components:
Training Program: During the Spring Semester, ILHR Fellows complete seminars on substantive international law issues that are relevant to their internships. Most students with internship placements at the International Law Commission are required to enroll in a 2-credit course about the ILC in the Spring semester. For a description of the seminars, see Spring 2013 Seminars.
ILHR Fellow Ishita Dutta (LLM 2012, far right) with Sara Hossain, the Honorary Director (center) and a colleague during Ishita’s 2012 internship at the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust in Dhaka.
Research Paper: IHRL Fellows undertake a supervised research project on a human rights, transitional justice or international law issue to be agreed upon in advance with academic supervisors at NYU. JD Fellows, other than those with internships at the International Law Commission, may choose to do the paper for course credit.
Fieldwork: IHRL Fellows conduct fieldwork through summer internships at placement sites for which they have applied and been selected, generally for 10 to 12 weeks. The nature of the fieldwork experience varies according to placement site, but may include direct client interaction, legal research, work on domestic campaigns, attending relevant meetings, drafting research or policy papers, and general institutional support as assigned by the host institution.
- For more information about the nature of activities at particular placement sites, review internship reports of the PILC Summer Funding Program(NYU NetID and password required).
ILHR Fellow Isaiah Uche Okorie (LLM 2012)with George Bizos, Senior Counsel at the Legal Resources Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa, during Uche’s 2012 internship with LRC’s Constitutional Litigation Unit.
During the 2012-13 academic year, there were 34 IHRL Fellows, with fieldwork placements at 25 prominent institutions, inter-governmental, governmental and non-governmental.
Learn more about recent fellowship placements.
See a list of all ILHR Fellows and Intern Placements.
See the winning entries from the 2012 Fellowship Documentation Contest.
ILHR Fellow Rachael Young (LLM 2012) during her internship with the Office of the Co-Prosecutor at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, summer 2012.