News Archive

IU McKinney’s Program in International Human Rights Law (PIHRL) marks its 20^th anniversary in 2017. Founded in 1997 by Professor George Edwards, the effort has logged almost 250 intern placements in 67 countries. Students work with private human rights organizations, governmental bodies, and the United Nations.

For Summer 2017, the program sent 11 J.D. students, and 2 LL.M. students to work with a variety of human rights organizations domestically and across the globe. Summer 2017 also marked the first time in the program’s history that there were interns on all six inhabited continents at the same time. Several 2017 summer interns will do another internship in Fall semester, making 2017 the largest cohort of interns in a calendar year.

In the photo at left are the Summer 2017 cohort of PIHRL interns. In the front row, from left, are Kaweme Ng'andwe, Swati Pradeep, Hannah Croucher, and Cindy Alfaro. In the second row, from left, are Professor George Edwards, Aron Hagos, Vice Dean Antony Page, Joseph Scales, Sheila Willard, Ben Hicks, Kari Knight, Tex Boonjue, Yeonjee Lee, Longmei Qiu, and Jacob Irven.

Sean Monkhouse, ’06, took part in a PIHRL internship during his time at IU McKinney because he knew that was the area of law he wanted to practice in upon graduation. For almost a decade he has worked for the United Nations, as a Legal Officer for the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in The Hague, The Netherlands. At IU McKinney, he interned in 3 locations over 2 different summers: with the Legal Aid Project for the Ugandan Law Society in Kampala, Uganda; with the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization in The Hague; and with the UN's ICTY in The Hague.

“I think that interning is one of the best ways to get the experience and networking needed to land your dream job,” Monkhouse said. “I knew that I wanted to work in international criminal law, preferably at the International Criminal Court or one of the UN's ad hoc tribunals, and to get there as quickly as possible I would need to gain as much relevant legal experience and as many contacts in the international legal community as I could while in law school. It's highly unlikely that I would have secured a position with the UN right after graduation had it not been for my internships. So in this sense, my PIHRL internships didn't just shape my legal career path, they created it.”

In the photo at right is Monkhouse at his internship with ICTY in The Hague.

Monkhouse’s appreciation for his intern experiences had lead him to recruit, train, and manage hundreds of legal interns over the last decade, he said.

Sheila Willard is a 3L at IU McKinney, who has been working for Direito Pro Bono in Lisbon, Portugal, and Organization for Aid for Refugees in Prague, in the Czech Republic. She also traveled to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the Spring 2017 semester, and to Ft. Meade, Maryland, to participate in the Military Commission Observation Project, which is also part of PIHRL. These experiences are shaping the direction she plans to pursue once she completes her legal education, Willard said.

In the photo at left, Willard is visiting a cultural site in Lisbon.

“When I came to law school, I intended to be a public servant,” Willard said, “but doing what I’m doing now is far beyond what I imagined I would be doing. I always knew I wanted to help people, but I didn’t know exactly how until now. I am extremely fortunate for PIHRL, because I’m not sure I would have gotten the same opportunities at any other school. I’m really taking advantage of a unique and rare opportunity that Professor Edwards has extended to my fellow interns and me.”

Willard plans to begin a second PIHRL internship during Fall 2017, and will resume her fulltime legal studies in Spring 2018. “I decided to continue interning through the Fall semester because I know this is a great way to experience other countries and other forms of law before committing myself post-graduation. My dream is to be able to work overseas after law school, so by being physically present and working with different organizations in different countries, I’m learning and networking on overdrive.”

Professor Edwards said he modeled PIHRL on the Human Rights Program that was founded at Harvard Law School when he was a J.D. student there. “As one of the first Harvard law student interns in their new overseas human rights internship program, I interned in Ethiopia and Sudan during one summer and at the United Nations in Geneva the second summer,” Professor Edwards said. “At Indiana, I hoped to facilitate similar international work opportunities for our J.D. and LL.M. students.”

PIHRL has received invaluable support from IU McKinney over the two decades in the program’s history, Professor Edwards said, and the accomplishments of IU McKinney students who have taken part in the program are a tremendous source of pride.

“I am very proud of each and every one of the students who has served as an intern over the last 20 years” Professor Edwards said. “Each former intern accomplished a great deal on the ground, promoting and protecting the rights of people around the globe, many of whom would have no one to advocate on their behalf. Our students gain practical field experience, at times in harsh conditions. But they contribute a great deal, not only to the organizations where they work, but also to the untold many thousands of people who are served by these organizations around the globe.”

The program has grown over the years to encompass a wide range of endeavors in the international human rights law arena.

“Internships are only one component of our PIHRL,” Professor Edwards said. “The PIHRL mission includes teaching international human rights law, researching and publishing in international human rights law, providing professional assistance to different types of organizations around the globe, and providing international human rights law internship opportunities for our students.”

Among the projects PIHRL has undertaken are:

• More than a dozen reports to the United Nations. IU McKinney students have presented such reports on the floor of United Nations meetings in New York City.
• Working on teams representing persons charged before international criminal tribunals, such as Slobodan Milosevic at the ICTY; and David Hicks, and Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay.
• Missions to monitor trials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Ft. Meade, Maryland; Ft. Belvoir, Virginia; the Pentagon.
• Drafting fair trial manuals.

“Current students, graduates, faculty, staff are all welcome to participate in PIHRL activities,” Professor Edwards said, “whether it is helping prepare a report to the UN and traveling to the UN to present it, traveling to Guantanamo Bay for military commission hearings, helping draft a section of our Guantanamo Bay Fair Trial Manual, or attending a lecture or seminar on an international human rights law topic.”