INTERNSHIPS: FUNDING PROGRAMS

Burns H. Weston Funded Human Rights Internship Program at Cape Town, South Africa

The Burns H. Weston Funded Human Rights Internship Program provides funding to selected students to participate in the internship program at the Gender Health and Justice Research Unit (GHJRU) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Program funds cover travel and living expenses associated with the internship. Current UI undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who will remain enrolled in a degree program at the UI the semester following their internship are eligible to apply.

For more information on the GHJRU internship program, please click HERE. To download the application for the 2007 Burns H. Weston Human Rights Funded Internship Program (deadline is April 15, 2007), please click HERE. If you have any questions about the program, please contact Amy Weismann.

The GHJRU runs a comprehensive internship programme aimed at equipping young activists and scholars with skills, knowledge and experience in the field of gender-based violence. The programme runs throughout the year and draws a range of students, including both undergraduate and graduate students.

Entry into the GHJRU internship programme is extremely competitive and we take only approximately 10% of those applying every year. All successful applicants have already shown themselves to have an interest in the promotion of women’s human rights—and particularly the right to be free from violence—through the activities they have engaged in prior to applying. Most have a specific interest in criminal justice policy and public health. The majority aim to continue working in this sector after they have graduated.

Interns apply either directly to the Unit or through a partnership arrangement with their university. In the past we have been privileged to host outstanding young scholars from Stanford’s Haas Centre for Public Interest, the University of Michigan Law School’s externship programme and Stanford and Yale Law School’s summer public interest funding programmes. The outstanding students provided by these programmes mean that our summers are extremely productive times!

Interns also apply to work at the Unit on an ad hoc basis and these applications are considered throughout the year. Such internships range from 10 weeks to a year. All interns participate fully in the work and activities of the Unit.

The GHJRU internship is focussed on three key areas: knowledge, skills and networking.

KNOWLEDGE

Interns are required to do extensive background reading on state responses to violence against women in South Africa. Together with our interns we select a core project on which they will focus during their time at the Unit. Previous projects have included analyses of harmful HIV-related sexual conduct; state responses to gang-related rapes; integrated medical, legal and psychosocial management of rape cases and the utility of specialised police, prosecution and court services for survivors of gender-based violence. These projects take up approximately half of the interns’ time at the Unit and allow them to develop an in-depth knowledge of a particular legal or public health problem. A further third of their time is spent providing ad hoc research support to various other projects in the Unit, thus allowing them to broaden their knowledge of other areas.

SKILLS

Because interns are effectively “running” their own research projects there is a substantial emphasis on the development of research skills, coupled with intensive one-on-one supervision. Working within an interdisciplinary environment interns are exposed to a range of methodologies and, depending on the project, may be involved with legal research, interviewing various criminal justice or health sector role-players, observational work in police stations, hospitals or courts and document analysis. Interns are involved from the inception of “their” project through design, execution and analysis. At the end of their internship they are expected to produce a substantial report of publishable quality. This year a number of interns have participated in Parliamentary hearings on the Sexual Offences Bill, observing Parliamentary Committee hearings and researching and drafting submissions to the Committee on key areas of law reform.

NETWORKING

The Unit actively provides interns with access to networks of scholars and activists in South Africa working on issues of violence against women. Where appropriate we also facilitate access to key government figures, including members of parliament  and government officials. We aim to select interns who we believe have the potential to play a leading role in addressing violence against women within their own countries and ours. These are therefore young scholars with whom we hope to have a lasting relationship, providing them with access to resources and networks as they grow in their work, and ensuring that they become acquainted not only with the realities of women’s lives in South Africa, but also with the remarkable people who work to make things better.

For further information please contact Lillian Artz (lartz@curie.uct.ac.za) or Dee Smythe (dsmythe@curie.uct.ac.za).