Volunteering at the Australian Human Rights Centre

The Australian Human Rights Centre is located on Level 12 of the Mathews Building, University of New South Wales. The Centre has two publications: the Human Rights Defender, which is a human rights magazine aimed at the Australian NGO community; and the Australian Journal of Human Rights, which is an academic journal that publishes articles on issues related to human rights. Both of the publications are predominately student-run.

The AHRC also participates in and initiates human rights advocacy work. In 2002 volunteers at the Centre wrote background papers about refugee-related issues for the Australian Refugee Rights Alliance (ARRA). Some of the students went to Geneva to participate as NGOs in the meeting of the Executive Committee of the UNHCR.

Another student associated with the Centre spent his summer in Tanzania doing aid work. This was a joint project between the Centre and the UNSW Education Department.

CURRENT VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES

LEGAL AID FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

The Legal Aid Commission of New South Wales in partnership with the UNSW Faculty of Law and the Australian Human Rights Centre has established a Human Rights Fellowship Program for graduate law students. The fellowship program has been developed to give UNSW law students interested in human rights legal practice an opportunity to gain hands-on work experience in the Legal Aid Commission of New South Wales.

One fellowship is currently available for a UNSW graduate law student to undertake the 15 week clinical component of the College of Law Practical Training Course Professional Program working in the Human Rights Unit of the Legal Aid Commission. The student will gain experience in human rights advocacy, assisting with the preparation of legal cases, law reform, training and education. The student will be paid a pro-rata salary for the 15 weeks.

Applications will be accepted until Friday, 30 th January 2006

>> Download the selection criteria

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

If you are interested in volunteering with the Centre in future, we would appreciate it if you could download and complete this form:

>> AHRC Volunteer Questionnaire

Please complete this questionnaire in full and email it to us at ahrc@unsw.edu.au. There is no need to send any other attachments (including CVs).

OR simply send an email to ahrc@unsw.edu.au and ask to be added to our volunteer update list. We send infrequent emails to this list to inform potential volunteers of upcoming projects and opportunities to get involved with the work of the centre.

Thank you.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

The Administrator, Australian Human Rights Centre

Faculty of Law

University of NSW

SYDNEY 2052

Australia

ph: (02) 9385-1803

fax: (02) 9385-1778

e-mail: ahrc@unsw.edu.au