Research and Projects Intern
The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre seeks an enthusiastic, reliable, well-organized individual to support its work to advance human rights in business, with a particular focus on North America, Africa, and technology and human rights. You should have some knowledge about business and human rights issues in North America, Africa, and/or related to technology. You will need the ability to concisely communicate and demystify large amounts of complex information. You should be self-motivated and able to work independently while functioning well as a member of a small team. You will need research skills, but also must be willing to do a large amount of routine data input efficiently and accurately. Attention to detail is essential.
Working with our Global Team, you will make an important contribution to furthering our vision of a world in which companies respect and advance human rights, and communities and workers are empowered to secure their rights and gain accountability for abuse. You will do so by helping us expand our organization’s coverage of business and human rights issues in North America, Africa, technology and human rights, and the Sustainable Development Goals, among other areas.
Depending on your skills, experience, and hours, your duties may include some or all of the following:
- Research & content development: Support the ongoing use of our website as a key source of information on business and human rights by monitoring and identifying relevant news, reports, and company disclosures, and updating our website to help ensure that we offer comprehensive coverage of critical business and human rights issues. The specific issues that you may be responsible for include:
- Business and human rights issues in North America. This may include a range of issues such as human rights violations associated with oil, gas, mining, and renewable energy projects, labour rights abuses, gender, and racial discrimination, abuses linked to private prisons and immigration detention centres, and attacks against human rights defenders;
- Business and human rights issues in Africa. This may include a range of issues such as human rights violations associated with oil, gas, mining, and renewable energy projects, labour rights abuses, internet shutdowns, and attacks against human rights defenders; and
- Technology and human rights. This will include updating our technology and human rights portal, which focuses on both the potential positive and negative impacts of artificial intelligence, automation and the gig economy on human rights
- Business action on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Based on language ability, you may also support with translation and expanding our coverage of business and human rights issues in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, and/or additional languages.
- Event support and fundraising: This may include conducting online research about prospective funders, materials preparation, and assisting with data entry, gathering, and analysis for our funding reports.
Please note that this internship is not academically oriented and does not involve extensive analysis or writing. Rather, it is a practical internship focused on bringing global attention to company conduct affecting people and communities, with the aim of promoting respect for human rights.