Thursday, August 20, 2009

The International Human Rights Program is pleased to announce that, for the third year in a row, IHRP internship students have been awarded an Arthur C. Helton Fellowship from the American Society of International Law to contribute to the cost of her summer internship.  This year, two students, Amanda Montague (I) and Rebecca Sutton (I), were selected from a pool of over fifty applicants from around the world.

For the summer of 2009, Amanda is interning with Justice for Children and Youth here in Toronto.  Her project will involve assessing Canada’s international human rights obligations and the treatment of aboriginal youth and will involve travel to some remote fly-in communities.

Sutton is interning with the Forced Migration Studies Program (FMSP) in South Africa.  As part of FMSP's Migrant Rights Monitoring Project, Sutton's work will include research at a detention facility in Johannesburg to assess the conditions of the facility and the general human rights issues faced by detainees before and during detention. FMSP hopes to use the research to lobby and train officials to ensure greater compliance with South African law and international human rights standards.

The awards will be announced at the ASIL General Meeting in Washington DC this month, as well as on the ASIL website and newsletter.  Upon completion of their internships, Sutton and Montague will also draft reflection essays about their experience that will be published on the ASIL website.