Background
I am a 2nd year master student at Sciences Po Paris in the Paris School of International Affairs in the Human Rights and Humanitarian Action masters program. I did an internship at the institutional development department of i(dh)eas, Litigio Estratégico en Derechos Humanos, A.C. between august 2015 and December 2016.
General experience
I had an incredible time working at I(dh)eas and I’d recommend this internship to any student studying Law or Political Sciences or Journalism with a strong interest in Human Rights. I(dh)eas’ team is composed of incredibly nice and respectful people who taught me a lot and with whom I had great relationships. You will work in a relaxed, positive and efficient environment. Due to i(dh)eas’ huge workload, you can be sure never to get bored and to be given really interesting tasks during your internship.
Working at i(dh)eas is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to witness and learn from the generalized Mexican human rights crisis and to be directly at the fore-front of the defense and promotion of human rights in Mexico. I(dh)eas’ litigation strategy is very innovative as it has the potential to generate major structural changes in the future and as it is a broad and comprehensive strategy, involving victim’s empowerment, communication, advocacy actions, case accompaniment and strategic litigation. Working at i(dh)eas will therefore give you a great experience as regards human rights advocacy and innovative strategies for the denunciation of Human Rights violations. It will moreover allow you to meet and help directly the victims of these human rights violations.
Tasks
During my internship, I helped the Institutional Development Coordinator by realizing tasks related to fund-raising activities. This included assisting the Coordinator in project redaction for potential financers, press-release redaction, and narrative report redaction both in Spanish and English. I also helped him planning i(dh)eas’ activities and budget for 2016 and doing other administrative and logistics tasks.
I(dh)eas being a small organization, I also assisted the legal team in its work. I for example helped elaborating and filling the Legal Database of the organization as well as elaborating a documentation sheet that the victims had to fill during the workshops. I also helped redacting and reviewing the context part of the legal documents that were sent to international organizations.
Finally, I also did Spanish-English translations as well as investigation tasks related to the context of disappearances in Mexico.
Knowledge acquired
I learned a lot about fundraising activities and on how to elaborate fund raising strategies for a small organization. I increased my experience as regards the subtleties of project redaction and follow-up activities with the organization’s financers.
I also discovered the Human Rights situation in Mexico and learned about the Mexican Human Rights civil society movement.
Finally, I acquired knowledge of legal research, case documentation, international human rights strategic litigation and legal advocacy.