International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), Geneva, Switzerland

Rachelle Dickinson with Max Morgan at the UN Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human RightsAs a firm-funded intern with U of T's International Human Rights Programme, I spent the months of July and August working for the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) in Geneva, Switzerland.  ISHR is a small non-governmental organization located across the street from the Palais des Nations, whose mission it is to facilitate the work of human rights defenders, particularly in developing countries, by providing analytical reports on meetings of the UN, training sessions on international human rights procedures, advice on effective lobbying, and various forms of protection. 

As an intern for ISHR, I joined the team responsible for producing the Human Rights Monitor, the organization's on-line and print publication, designed to provide human rights defenders with analysis of the principal human rights meetings of the United Nations (in both Geneva and New York), as well as the voting records of the meetings.  A benefit of ISHR's small size and organizational structure, interns are almost wholly responsible for the substantive development of the Monitor, a happy contrast from many of the Geneva organizations.   As part of a diverse and multi-lingual team of five interns, my main task encompassed the annual session of the UN Sub-Commission on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights.  The Sub-Commission, composed of a panel of independent experts and attended by country representatives, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, addressed a number of pressing topics in 2003, including contemporary forms of slavery, the right to drinking water and sanitation, housing and property restitution for refugees and internally displaced persons, draft norms on the human rights obligations of trans-national corporations, and the accountability of peacekeeping forces for violations of human rights law.  I had the opportunity to attend many of the meetings of the Sub-Commission, and was responsible for producing an analysis on such agenda items as the administration of justice, and economic, social and political rights.  As well, I provided support for the production of analysis on other items such as State violations of human rights. 

 In addition to my participation in the Sub-Commission, I had the opportunity to attend sessions of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).  As well, I generated an analysis and synopsis of the 56th session of the World Health Assembly, during which intellectual property issues, especially in the context of fighting HIV/AIDS, was hotly debated.  I created a report on the 12th session of the Commission on Crime Convention and Criminal Justice, which focused on human trafficking.  I also reported on the 2002 World Food Summit: five years later, where the contentious issues of the existence of a human right to food, trade barriers, and the role of biotechnology in addressing world hunger was discussed, and as well I detailed the progress of the Intergovernmental Working Group charged with establishing voluntary guidelines on the right to food.  Further, I helped to compile a summary of resolutions and decisions from the 2003 session of the Commission on Human Rights. 

Having an interest in the work of international non-governmental human rights organizations, the United Nations system, international relations, and of course international human rights law, I am glad to have had the opportunity to experience the Geneva environment first-hand, and to get a taste of both the achievements and the shortcomings that appear to accompany the work in this most international of cities.