Access to Justice in Environmental Matters

Graduate or post-graduate students. Possibility to undertake an internship in international environmental law with the secretariat of the Aarhus Convention at the United Nations office at Geneva.Interested candidates should: be presently undertaking, or have recently completed, a law degree, preferably including international and/or environmental law , be fluent in written and spoken English. Fluency in Russian and/or French is desirable.
 

As you may be aware, the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters is the only international legally binding instrument that gives the public broad and concrete rights to participate in decision-making and to have access to information and justice regarding the environment. In doing so, the Convention links environmental and human rights and aims to protect the rights of both present and future generations to live in a healthy environment.

As Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, has said: «The Aarhus Convention remains the most ambitious venture in the field of environmental democracy under the auspices of the United Nations…The Aarhus Convention’s twin protections for environmental and human rights, and its focus on involving the public, provide a mechanism for holding governments to account in their efforts to address the multi-dimensional challenges facing our world today, including climate change, poverty reduction, and air and water pollution.»
  The Aarhus Convention currently has 47 Parties from Western Europe to Central Asia and is open globally. More information on the Aarhus Convention is available at http://www.unece.org/env/pp/welcome.html

It is my pleasure to inform you that the secretariat to the Aarhus Convention offers four three month internships to graduate or post-graduate students in law for the follow periods each year: January – March; April – June; July – September; October – December (one intern for each three month period).

During their internship, interns have the opportunity to apply their legal skills in the UN context, working closely with officers in the secretariat and gaining hands-on experience in many aspects of servicing a high profile international environmental treaty. A notable component of the internship is the opportunity to support the work of the Aarhus Convention’s innovative Compliance Committee, an international committee that hears cases brought by members of the public and governments seeking to ensure the Convention’s rights are upheld.

The secretariat accepts internship applications on a continuing basis for each of the four three month periods.
 
Interested candidates should:
–        be presently undertaking, or have recently completed, a law degree, preferably including international and/or environmental law
–        be fluent in written and spoken English. Fluency in Russian and/or French is desirable.

Please find more information in the attached poster.
Instructions on preparing the application are also available online at http://www.unece.org/oes/internships/internship_prog.html.
Applications should be sent to interns@unece.org and in copy to public.participation@unece.org.