Pax Romana´s involvement in human rights at United Nations began in 1949 when Pax Romana was granted Consultative Status as an ternational Non-Governanmental Organization (NGO) accredited with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

In 1999, drawing from its expertise and experience, Pax Romana ICMICA/MIIC established Human Rights Internship Programme which provides an exposure to the UN Human Rights instruments and mechanisms. This Internship is organized twice a year for young human rights defenders from various countries, particularly the Global South. In 10 years, more than 100 human rights defenders from various countries have participated and benefited from this intensive training programme. They have also greatly contributed to the preparation and presentation of the oral interventions and statements on various issues with the rich experiences on the ground.

Our commitment towards promoting, protecting and upholding of human rights is a way of witness to the Gospel values, and at the same time, a strategy for global leadership capacity-building of young leaders of Catholic lay movements and NGOs.

Hence, many young leaders of our movement as well as like-minded sister movements such as Pax Romana - International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS/MIEC) and International Young Catholic Students (IYCS/JECI) have been invited to participate in this programme.

Many human rights defenders who have been working for National Commission of Justice and Peace and other secular human rights NGOs have also attended.
At the same time, from 1999 to 2008 Pax Romana presented more than 175 Statements on Human Rights (at the annual sessions of the UN Commission on Human Rights and Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights until 2006 and after at the UN Human Rights Council).

Objectives

The objectives of the internship programmes are:

• Attending the UN Council on Human Rights
• Providing the participants with the direct experience on the UN nations systems and mechanism related to human rights.
• Having direct interaction with different experts coming both from UN and NGOs on the issue of human rights,
• Building the networking between participants with other human rights defenders coming form different NGOs.
• Facilitating the participants to relate the human rights issue in their place of origin with the frame of the UN mechanism on human rights.

Methodology

The session of the internship programme include:

• Observation of the UN Human Rights Council
• Workshop and Discussion with UN experts and different NGOs
• Presentation on human rights situations of different countries
• Analysis and Discussion on different human rights issues (Case Study)
• Group Assignment
• Individual Assignment followed by presentation By the end of the internship programme, each participant will have a plan of follow up according to their own context.

Participants

The participants of this programme are:

• Human rights defenders or activists, especially the members of Pax Romana ICMICA/ MIIC federations and Pax Romana IMCS/MIEC movements,
• Human rights defenders from International Young Catholic Students, Justice and Peace Commissions, International Catholic Organisations, or other church related groups, or NGOs.
• Young lawyers, students, researcher on human rights, international relations or law.
• Victims of human rights violations

The criteria of selection:

• Curriculum vitae
• The work of the candidate on the human rights field
• Report of the candidate of the human rights situation on their own country
• Letter of motivation
• Letter of recommendation
• Commitment for the follow up

Human rights internship programes

Attached is a booklet on the internship programmes organised by Pax Romana ICMICA/MIIC.