Reaching
Critical Will Internship Programme September–December 2010
Deadline for applications:
6 September 2010 Applications accepted on a rolling basis, so please submit
your application soon to make sure you are considered!
Reaching Critical Will is seeking qualified
interns for mid-September to mid-December. (Start and end
dates are flexible. Interns should at least be available between
20 September and 5 November. We welcome interns to start earlier
and/or continue later if it fits their schedule). We are looking
for experienced, journalism-style writers to help us research,
monitor, and report on what happens at the UN
General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International
Security.
Qualified interns will be assisting
in production of Reaching Critical Will publications, representing
Reaching Critical Will at civil society meetings, monitoring
governmental meetings as necessary, and helping us maintain
one of the largest and most relied-upon web-based resources
of disarmament information available. Some
administrative work will also be required, such as answering
phones, sending faxes and emails, etc.
The WILPF UN Office is a lively place, with two projects
- Reaching Critical Will and
- friendly staff, and several interns at a time. We provide
our interns with an opportunity to gain experience in many
areas of non-profit, non-government work and to attend meetings
at the United Nations on a regular basis.
Please note: At this time, internships are unpaid. WILPF
cannot provide assistance with housing, relocation, or procuring
visas. Please take this into consideration before applying
for an internship.
Start and end dates are flexible. Full- and part-time positions
available.
assisting with scheduling and execution of side events;
and
basic office tasks, including scanning documents, managing
the phones, etc.
Qualifications:
Excellent writing and research skills;
Knowledge of international relations;
Availability of at least 16 hours a week during normal
business hours; and
Experience in political activism, basic grasp of feminist
perspectives/theory and multilingualism an advantage.
Start and end dates are flexible. Interns should at least
be available between 20 September and 5 November. We welcome
interns to start earlier and/or continue later if it fits
their schedule.
Cover letter explaining interest in the project and the
organization (also indicate availability);
Resume/CV; and
1 brief relevant writing sample (2000 words or less).
No phone calls please!
What is Reaching Critical Will?
The Reaching Critical Will project has five aims:
•Centralize and disseminate information about intergovernmental
meetings that discuss nuclear weapons and their elimination;
•Maintain a centralized electronic repository of information,
and information services through our website www.reachingcriticalwill.org;
•Increase the quality and quantity of NGO preparation
and participation in these processes;
•Increase the quality and quantity of NGO interaction
with governments and the United Nations and it's family of
Specialized Agencies;
•Provide logistical support in facilitating activities
before and during these fora tailored for policy-makers and
the public.
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom created
the RCW project in 1999, in order to increase the quality
and quantity of civil society at international disarmament
fora, such as those that take place at the UN. We believe
that nuclear disarmament will require coordinated and sustained
effort on the part of governments, non-governmental organizations
and the United Nations. Reaching Critical Will is WILPF's
initiative to encourage people to act and contribute to a
variety of international fora. For non-governmental organizations
and concerned individuals to act, they need information, primary
documents and analysis. Reaching Critical Will collects, packages
and often translates disarmament related information into
terms ordinary people can understand.
What is the Women's International League for Peace
and Freedom?
WILPF is the oldest women's peace organisation in the world.
It was founded in April 1915, in the Hague, the Netherlands,
by some 1300 women from Europe and North America, from countries
at war against each other and neutral ones, who came together
in a Congress of Women to protest the killing and destruction
of the war then raging in Europe.
Its aims and principles are:
•to bring together women of different political beliefs
and philosophies who are united in their determination to
study, make known and help abolish the causes and the legitimization
of war;
•to work toward world peace; total and universal disarmament;
the abolition of violence and coercion in the settlement of
conflict and its replacement in every case by negotiation
and conciliation;
•to support the civil society to democratise the United
Nations system;
•to support the continuous development and implementation
of international and humanitarian law;
•to promote political and social equality and economic
equity;
•to contribute towards co-operation among all people;
•to enhance environmentally sustainable development.
Believing that under systems of exploitation these aims cannot
be attained and a real and lasting peace and true freedom
cannot exist, WILPF makes it one of its missions to further
by non- violent means the social and economic transformation
of the international community. This would enable the establishment
of economic and social systems in which political equality
and social justice for all can be attained, without discrimination
on the basis of sex, race, religion, or any other grounds
whatsoever.
