Rutgers Law students have the opportunity to work on actual cases involving LGBTI rights while living in  South America, as part of a new summer internship program, being organized by the Trasnational Legal Initiative (“TLI”), under the Center for Gender, Sexuality, Law & Policy.

“Students will be able to work with leading attorneys and advocates who are bringing cases on sexual rights before domestic and international courts.  They will also be able to work on policy and advocacy issues on behalf of LGBTI communities in Chile and Colombia,” said Professor Jorge Contesse, a human rights expert and leading investigator of TLI, who is overseeing the internships.” The NGOs we have teamed up with are some of the finest civil society organizations in the region. Rutgers students will have a unique opportunity to work on on-the-ground human rights matters.”

Rutgers Law’s Transnational Legal Initiative will provide students with up to $4,500 in stipends to cover transportation, housing and living expenses. Students will spend up to six weeks in Bogotá or Santiago, working on strategies to advance LGBTI rights both at the domestic and international level.

The summer work is important, and relevant to the social justice ethic present among Rutgers Law students, said Contesse, “Latin America is traditionally one of the most politically conservative regions in the world.  But this is changing.  Civil society organizations are using international human rights law, and courts are increasingly articulating legal arguments based on human rights norms and principles.  The same goes for advocacy strategies before administrative agencies.  The language of LGBTI rights is rapidly gaining strength in Latin American countries. . . . Rutgers Law attracts students with an interest in social justice--they are of course the natural candidates for these internships.  Students who are interested in understanding comparative legal systems should also be interested in applying.”

Applicants must agree to work full-time at one of the two organizations for at least four weeks. Upon return, the student will submit a three- to five-page report on the experience. To apply, students must submit a resume; statement of interest detailing the relevance of the internship to past experience and professional goals; a letter of recommendation from a faculty member; and a current transcript.

Applications must be submitted to cgslp@law.rutgers.edu by January 31, 2017. Students must use “TLI Summer Internship” in the subject line of the emailed application. A committee comprised of Professors Carlos Ball, Jorge Contesse, Stuart Deutsch, and Suzanne Kim will select the TLI summer interns. Questions? Please contact Professor Contesse at jorge.contesse@rutgers.edu.

About the Center

The Rutgers Center for Gender, Sexuality, Law and Policy (CGSLP) facilitates interdisciplinary and publicly-engaged research, curricular, and programming initiatives in furtherance of gender- and sexuality-based equity in law and policy. CGSLP seeks specifically to examine questions of social inequality from multi-disciplinary and intersectional standpoints, attending to the complex ways in which gender and sexuality interact with a range of social dimensions.

About TLI

The Transnational Legal Initiative (TLI) was launched in July 2016 and is a collaborative effort with the CGSLP. The program aims to engage in some of the questions and challenges raised by the legal and political struggle for the recognition of LGBTI individuals. .” TLI will host international scholars and advocates in the field of LGBTI rights who will be featured in the CGSLP lunchtime lecture series. Inquiry and research will produce creative scholarship on issues of transnational mobilization as it relates to LGBTI rights.