Jobs & Fellowships
Program Director Deena Hurwitzand other law faculty meet with students to discuss fellowship and career opportunities, and students are invited to join an email list to regularly receive job and fellowship announcements. The students, many of whom have worked abroad, also offer a significant networking resource for those interested in human rights work. Students interested in human rights work in the United States and abroad have access to summer grants of $3,500 (first year) and $6,000 (second year) from the student-run Public Interest Law Association.
SUMMER FELLOWSHIPSThe Program arranges a student summer internship with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. Students may also apply for a limited number of grants for summer human rights internships. DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary (D.C.) has established a place for a UVA student to work as a summer fellow with the firm’s pro bono legal reform initiative in Kosovo.
The Human Rights Program recently helped fund students working with:
- Human Rights Watch (London)
- International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (The Hague)
- Center for Justice in International Law (CEJIL) (San Jose, Costa Rica)
- Cambodia Women’s Crisis Center (Siem Reap)
The student-run Public Interest Law Association also offers grants, from approximately $3,500 to $6,000, to help fund a broad array of summer public interest opportunities. Last summer students worked with:
- Asylum Access (Quito, Ecuador)
- Center for Human Rights Legal Action (Guatemala City)
- Institute for International Law and Human Rights (Washington, D.C.)
- International Bridges to Justice (New Delhi, India)
- International Center for Transitional Justice (Cape Town, South Africa)
- International Justice Mission (Guatemala City and Manila, Philippines)
- Minority Rights Group International (London)
- Center for Applied Legal Studies, Gender Unit, University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa)
- U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Arusha, Tanzania)
- Secretariat of Pacific Communities (Fiji)
See Where PILA Grantees Worked.
Several opportunities for public international law related fellowships are available to Virginia graduates, including:
International Court
of Justice (The Hague) Virginia Law is one
of a select group of American law schools who nominate candidates
for a clerkship with the ICJ. The Orrick International Court of Justice Traineeship Fellow receives up
to $50,000 to support the nine-month clerkship, which is open
to graduates in the five most recent classes.
Application Directions | Related Article
Monroe Leigh Fellowship in International
Law
Provides a total of $10,000 for one or two students to pursue
a public international law project of their own during a summer
internship, during their third year, or after graduation.
Application Information | Related
Article
The Law School’s Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center also offers a generous loan forgiveness program for students who take lower-paying public service positions after graduation.
The program maintains a network of recent graduates involved in the human rights law field. Alumni employers include:
- International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
- Canadian Centre for International Justice
- Center for Constitutional Rights
- Center for National Security Studies
- Law firm Burke O’Neil
- EarthRights International
- Freedom House
- Council for Global Equality
- Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal
- Harvard Law School Human Rights Clinic
- Section 27
- U.S. Senate Judiciary and Armed Services committees
- U.N. Office of Legal Affairs
Through the human rights listserv, the Program provides students information about human rights jobs and fellowship opportunities. To join the listserv, contact Cindy Derrick.
Mission |
Courses & Clinics | Faculty & Scholarship
Student Organizations | News & Events |
Jobs & Fellowships
