Hello all,

I am an undergraduate law student and will be graduating next year. I am very keenly interested in pursuing a career in international human rights law particularly specializing in refugee law. I was wondering if some of you guys could throw some light upon job prospects after pursuing an LLM in human rights law from a university in UK. I came across many articles which talk about the difficulty in getting a job in IGO/INGOs and was wondering how a masters can help me out.

Thanks in anticipation.

I´m not an expert but a LLM in Human Rights Law would help you a lot to enter that area, but it is also very important the experience you could get working for an NGO or government agencies..
If you have both experience and the LLM you could apply to a job in the UN (mostly Geneva) or other international organizations, but the most important thing is to acquire both experience and education!

Best regards!

Thanks for your reply andresob5. So you mean to say that it is advisable for one to do some internships or volunteering work with INGOs/NGOs in order to gain experience relevant for UN jobs. That makes things clearer. Thank you once again.

If you're interested in working for the UN, I think your best bet would be look at http://unjobs.org/ to see what kinds of requirements they are asking for, for the kinds of jobs which interest you. You will then see that an LLM is often required, but that experience is nonetheless very necessary. Entry-level jobs are VERY difficult to come across, and most people put in time at unpaid or low-paying internships both at home and abroad to be able to come close to what the UN expects of its applicants.

Interestingly I came across this discussion:

http://www.glocals.com/forums/geneva/where-how-in-geneva/Internships--NGOs-and-International-Organization--how-to-survive-and-pass-to-the-next-step--a-real-job--123176.htm

It is extremely discouraging for a person like me who might have to gather work experience after getting an LLM. Any ideas on how one can successfully move to a paid job through an internship with INGOs?