Internship – Detention Center, The Hague

22002 | Detention Center

Organisational Unit:

Detention Section, Registry

Duty Station:

The Hague – NL

Contract Duration:

3 to 6 months

Deadline for Applications:

23 June 2022

Due to the volume of applications received, only successful applicants will be contacted by the Court.

Required Documents for This Application

Please note that you will need to have the following information ready in order to complete your application: A completed “Duties and Responsibilities Form” (refer to step 1 on your eRecruitment Profile page).

• Motivation letter (maximum of 400 words).
• Two reference letters (one academic).
• Scanned copies of university degrees and/or diplomas.
• Scanned copies of official academic transcripts that state your courses, results and completion date.
• One short essay on a subject relevant to the work of the Court (maximum of 750 words, single spaced, type written).

Important message:

To participate in containing the COVID-19 spread and in line with the measures adopted by the Host State, interns and visiting professionals may be asked to work remotely during their placement. While working remotely, they are still required to work from within the duty station, The Hague. The currently applicable measures of the Court will be shared with each candidate prior to the starting date of his/her placement.

Contract Duration

Interns are required to work full time for a period between three and six months (to be agreed to prior to commencement). Internship placements shall not be extended beyond six months.

The Opportunity

The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individual charges with the gravest crimes of concerns to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression. The Court is participating in the global fight to end impunity, and through international criminal justice, the Court aims to hold those responsible accountable for their crimes and to help prevent the crimes from happening again. You can contribute to this cause by joining the ICC.

Organisational Context

The Chief Custody Officer (CCO) is responsible for the Detention Centre and the Detention Section of the International Criminal Court. The Detention Section is responsible for providing safe, secure and humane conditions for persons who are detained by the Court whilst they are awaiting trial or pending appeal.

The Detention Section’s overall objective is to ensure a physically safe and mentally healthy environment for detained persons at every stage of detention, from their initial transfer to the Court until they are either released on the Court’s order or transferred to a State of enforcement to serve a sentence.

The main activities of the Detention Section are therefore related to:

• The administration of the Detention Centre and the fundamental rights of the detainees;
• The support and management of documents filed before the Chambers;
• Liaising with and responding to enquiries from the International Committee of the Red Cross;
• The support and management of documents submitted to the Detention Section at the hearings;
• Liaising with and responding to enquiries from other sections within the Court.

Duties and Responsibilities

Interns providing services in the Detention Section would be required to perform the following duties:

• Conduct legal research on behalf of the CCO on all matters related to the mandate of the Detention Section;

• Provide support to relevant sections of the Division/Registry on projects related to the mandate of the Detention Section;
• Follow all the cases before the Court which are related to the Detention Section;
• Provide summaries of important filings and where required, an in-depth analysis of relevant decisions;
• Assist in drafting correspondence;
• Providing support in the management and supervision of all activities undertaken by the Section;
• Assist in drafting memoranda on behalf of the CCO;
• Assist with managing the Detention Section’s various database; and
• Provide administrative assistance on any other task that may be assigned to the Intern by the CCO.
• In order to complete these services access will be granted to the Court’s own library as well as its wide range of legal databases.

Essential Qualifications

Education: All candidates must have a degree or be in the final stages of their studies at a recognized university in the area of law, international relations or other relevant field. Candidates are expected to have a very good record of academic performance.

Experience: Internship placements focus on candidates in the early stages of their professional careers therefore; practical experience is not an essential prerequisite for selection.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Maintains a service-orientated attitude at all times.
• Has a genuine interest in international law, particularly international criminal law, and legal research.
• Able to adapt to multicultural and multilingual working environments.
• Possesses strong teamwork skills (listens, consults and communicates proactively).
• Has acquired a good standard of computer skills (including Microsoft Office applications).

Knowledge of Languages

Proficiency in either of the working languages of the Court (French or English) is required. Knowledge of another official language of the Court (Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish) is an asset.

Other criteria: It is the Court’s objective to have diversity and gender balance. In line with the ICC’s efforts to improve geographical representation among staff, nationals of non-represented and under-represented countries at the ICC are encouraged to apply. The list can be found here.

Remuneration

Please note that the ICC is not able to provide all participants in the Internship and Visiting Professional Programme with remuneration, nor is it possible to provide reimbursement for expenses incurred during the internship or visiting professional placement.

Applicants should therefore be able to support themselves for the duration of their internship or placement.

Limited funding may, however, be available through the ICC’s Trust Fund for the Development of Interns and Visiting Professionals, which receives donations from States Parties and other donors to fund nationals of States Parties from developing regions. These donations are equally divided between the four Organs of the Court.

If funding is available, the Human Resources Section shall assess a candidate’s eligibility in accordance with the terms of reference of the Trust Fund as agreed by the donors.

In order to be eligible, the applicant must, among other criteria, be a national from a country that is a State Party to the Rome Statue and appears on the United Nations Statistics Division’s list of developing regions.

Candidates eligible for funding shall receive detailed information and further instructions after the selection process is finalized. Stipends will always be agreed at the time of offering the internship. No funding will be provided at a later stage.