Internships


Americas Programs Legal Intern: The Americas Programs intern will be responsible for providing support for MDRI’s Americas Programs, in collaboration with and under the supervision of the Americas Programs director and other MDRI staff. The intern will aid in the implementation of Americas Programs activities, including bringing attention to human rights violations against people with disabilities in the region, supporting the development of disability rights advocacy, and engaging in policy advocacy on a regional level that includes the rights of people with disabilities. The intern will aid in MDRI’s collaboration with locally-based organizations in the region to help train and support new organizations led by people with mental disabilities, interface with mainstream human rights groups to promote the inclusion of mental disability rights into their core advocacy agendas, help craft disability rights policy, and  work through the inter-American human rights system of the Organization of American States to bring about legal recognition and enforcement of the rights of people with mental disabilities.
The intern will gain hands-on experience in preparing legal briefs and strategizing about case development for litigation in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and will gain an understanding of the inter-American human rights system. The intern will also acquire practical experience in the day to day operation on an international NGO.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct legal research toward helping to draft submissions to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights;
• Review case files and help prepare responses to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights;
• Assist in drafting monthly reports to the Board of Directors and other MDRI staff to reflect program activities and provide editing of these materials;
• Synthesize and translate activities reports from colleagues in the Americas and other materials on an as-needed basis;
• Foster and maintain excellent, professional working relations
  with staff and be able to function as part of a team;
• Conduct prospect research to identify potential corporate, foundation
  and individual donors; and
• Perform other duties as assigned.

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