Reaching Critical Will is looking for a Disarmament Intern, start date 1 October at the Geneva office.
Reaching Critical Will (RCW), the disarmament project of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, is seeking an Intern from 1 October.
Reaching Critical Will provide our interns with an opportunity to gain experience in the area of disarmament, international security, non-government work and to attend disarmament meetings at the United Nations on a regular basis. The internship will focus specifically on three ongoing projects; The Non-proliferation Action Plan monitoring, The Convention on certain Conventional Weapons Review conference and a website re-launch project.
Internship responsibilities:
- participates and helps coordinate RCW and WILPF events and actions.
-monitors UN meetings related to field of responsibility
-works on research papers and documents
-updates RCW`s website
-administrative tasks and personnel management
-manages general email accounts
- provide help to the Secretariat on Int’l meetings and events planning
-handle administrative and office duties
-actively participate in the mailings from the Secretariat
-file, archive (office and server)
Qualifications:
- Completed undergraduate or enrolled in graduate education in International Relations, Political Science or other relevant discipline;
- Excellent writing and research skills;
- Fluency in English;
- Interest in disarmament, peace and international security;
- Availability of at least 20 hours a week during normal business hours.
The post is based in Geneva and while start and end dates are flexible, interns should at least be available for three months. Unfortunately Reaching Critical Will is not in a position to offer any financial remuneration to interns. All interns are responsible for all expenses and costs incurred in undertaking an internship with us.
How to Apply
Please send the following material to disarm@wilpf.ch.
Cover letter explaining interest in the project and the organization (also indicate availability);
Resume/CV;
2 references
Applications close on 20 September 2011. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
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.
