Internships and Fellowships
Our Human Rights Summer Fellowship application is now closed.
Summer Fellowship Opportunities
The Center for Human Rights & International Justice is pleased to offer several paid summer fellowship opportunities for students interested in human rights and international justice, in collaboration with campus partners such as the Stanford Global Studies Division and the Haas Center for Public Service. Placements ensure students have meaningful, applied research and work opportunities to inform their studies and future career pathways. This program is one of more than 550 Cardinal Quarter opportunities through which Stanford undergraduate or grad students pursue a full-time summer or quarter-long public service experience with Stanford support. The most flexible of our opportunities, Human Rights Summer Fellowships are awarded to highly motivated students aiming to make a valuable contribution in partnership with a relevant organization in the U.S. or abroad. Learn more about summer fellowships.
In Summer 2020 and 2021, the Center placed several Stanford students to work remotely on diverse topics within the fields of human rights and international justice. Our students undertook important work across the globe, including legal and programmatic support of transitional justice and war crime trial efforts, authoring a report on the impact of COVID-19 on workers in South America, researching human trafficking right here in the Bay Area, helping public health campaigns in Ethiopia, and engaging climate change's impacts on human rights with the Fiji Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
Meet Human Rights Fellow Ibrahim Bharmal (Class of 2018)
"The Center for Human Rights & International Justice is hands-down the most influential institution at Stanford. The faculty and students are some of the most kind, supportive, and global individuals I have met. My summer as a Human Rights Fellow single-handedly changed how I view the world and my role in it; I am and will be forever grateful for the opportunities the Center has offered me."
Ibrahim is from Buena Park, California. At Stanford, he double-majored in Comparative Literature and International Relations and minored in Human Rights with focuses in Arabic and Middle Eastern History. His studies took him all over the world: from volunteering in refugee camps in Greece and Germany to working on protecting civil rights with the Council on American Islamic Relations in New York. Ibrahim's academic interests come together as a member of the 2017-2018 Honors in the Arts Cohort, where he wrote a memoir on his mother's and father's journeys from Pakistan to the United States. On campus, Ibrahim served as a Class President for four years and served as the Director of Global Engagement of the American Middle Eastern Network for Dialogue at Stanford (AMENDS). In the future, Ibrahim hopes to pursue a career in international human rights.
Meet SGS Intern Quito Tsui (Class of 2018)
"The Center for Human Rights & International Justice has been fundamental to my time at Stanford. The expertise of the center and the incredible opportunities they offer have allowed me to work at both the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia and Temple Garden Law Chambers in the Hague. These experiences have been pivotal learning moments, integral to shaping my future career path."
By employing an interdisciplinary framework, Quito has used a variety of perspectives to pursue a unique understanding of notions of humanity, citizenship, and justice, particularly in post-conflict situations. Her academic work has focused on transitional justice, peacebuilding, and the intersection of the international community with the needs of domestic actors. Her Human Rights Minor capstone project looked at trial monitoring as a practical tool to facilitate the rule of law, while her Political Science honors thesis posits a normative theory of assessment for hybrid tribunals. Quito hopes that her work can help bridge the gap between regionalism and globalism in the post-conflict context, and contribute to building a more inclusive international community.
The Center for Human Rights & International Justice's fellowships contribute to more than 450 international placements as part of the Cardinal Quarter program, designed by the Haas Center for Public Service to integrate academic learning with field-based public service experiences.