GENEVA INTERNS

Current interns

Isabelle Waring (United Kingdom)

Isabelle is a 21 year old undergraduate at Queen Mary University of London. She studies French and Comparative Literature, and has recently completed a semester at la Sorbonne in Paris. Although she currently specialises in the arts and philosophy for her undergraduate degree, Isabelle intends to complete a law conversion so as to be able to advocate as a human rights barrister. She is hoping to complete a Masters in Human Rights Law at Columbia University, New York. After working on a human rights project in Senegal, one of the problem areas she is most passionate about is access to education for all people.  In the future, she hopes to be able to continue traveling and volunteering on similar projects, as well as working on other human rights issues. Isabelle says she is very much looking forward to interning with the ISHR, familiarising herself further with the work of the UN, and contributing to ISHR’s Regional and National Human Rights Defenders Programme.

Jo Stokes (United Kingdom)

Jo is a graduate of Roehampton University with a BSc (Hons) in Human Rights. She discovered her passion for protecting human rights whilst volunteering at Amnesty International in London and later spent two amazing years working in the Education and Student Team at Amnesty whilst studying for her degree. In addition, following her volunteer work with Detention Action in London, Jo developed a strong interest in the rights of asylum seekers, particularly those caught up in the immigration detention system in the United Kingdom and worldwide. Jo is now looking forward to working in Geneva and seeing the UN in action during her internship with the ISHR's UN monitoring team.

Rosa Herminia Edejer (Switzerland/Philippines)

Rosa was born in Manila, the Philippines, where she lived for the first 13 years of her life before moving to Geneva, Switzerland. She completed both her Bachelor of Laws and Masters of Laws in International and European Law at the University of Geneva. She has previously been an intern at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office for Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines. Rosa has always shown a keen interest in the areas of international human rights and international humanitarian law. She says she is excited to join the ISHR team and hopes to learn a lot from her internship.    

Robyn Boosey (United Kingdom)

Robyn Boosey has completed a BA in Modern Languages (French and Spanish) at the University of Oxford and is currently studying an MSc in International Relations at the University of Bristol. She considers France to be her second home, having lived there for two years in total. In addition to this, she volunteered in Costa Rica with the NGO Educación Plus, and has also studied at the University of Salamanca in Spain. Alongside her MSc course, she has worked as a translator in the marketing department of an online extreme sports retailer. This has allowed her to discover a hidden passion for freestyle motocross that she never knew she had. In the future, Robyn would like to work in an international organisation and is very much looking forward to her experience with ISHR.

Isabelle Chaumont (France)

Isabelle was born and raised in Strasbourg, France. She obtained her Bachelor in Law and European Studies from Strasbourg University in 2009. Following this, Isabelle spent a year on a student exchange in Utrecht, The Netherlands, where she completed a Master’s Degree inInternational and European Law (with honours). In 2011, she completed a LL.M in International Business Law (with cum laude) at VUUniversity Amsterdam. During her studies, Isabelle developed a strong interest in human rights and in their systems of protection. For the academic year 2011-2012, Isabelle is enrolled in a ‘Master 2’ in human rights, humanitarian affairs and international cooperation at the Institute of Advanced European Studies of Strasbourg. 

Nikila Kaushik (Australia)

Nikila has completed an Arts (History) degree and is currently in her fourth year of an undergraduate Law degree at Sydney University. Her time at university and experiences travelling and living abroad have conditioned her interest in international law and human rights, which she has pursued through her work with Indigenous Affairs and Refugee organisations. Nikila doesn’t have previous internship experience, and is excited by the prospect of learning more about the work of the United Nations during her time in Geneva. Nikila is looking forward to gaining further experience with human rights organisations after completing the internship, before returning to Sydney to finish her degree.

Christian Rogers (United Kingdom)

Christian Rogers is a UK national, born in Guildford Surrey. He has a passion for International Relations, which he discovered at the University of Kent during his undergraduate studies. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and International Relations, and is set to purse an MSc in Conflict and Peace studies in late 2012. Since graduating Christian has worked for a non-governmental organisation called Peace One Day and an intergovernmental organisation called the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe. Christian says he is looking forward to his time at ISHR later this year, and to a career in international relations. 

Florence Foster (Germany)

Florence is a ‘citizen of the world’, living throughout her childhood in Rwanda, Cameron, Switzerland and Turkey, and more recently traveling in South East Asia, South America and the USA. She graduated from Bristol University with an MSC in International Relations, whereby she pursued studies in the issues of genocide and human trafficking.  She also hopes to combine her past experience in the managerial sector and her fluency in German, French and English in her future career path. Her internship at the ISHR will apply her combined knowledge and build upon it to continue along this path of human rights and human security in Geneva’s thriving humanitarian community.

Incoming interns

Sarah Castles (Australia)

NEW YORK INTERNS

Natasha Chokhani (United States)

Natasha Chokhani is a recent graduate of American University Washington College of Law, where she worked as a student attorney in the International Human Rights Law Clinic on both asylum and Inter-American Commission cases.  During law school Natasha also worked as a Law Clerk at Trow & Rahal, PC, an immigration firm specializing in asylum for Burmese political dissidents. Natasha has a B.A. from the University of California, Irvine, in International Relations with a focus on the Middle East and Political Science. Between college and law school, Natasha worked at The Advocacy Project, a Washington-D.C.-based human rights non-profit and volunteered in Egypt and Tanzania.

Nathaniel Howard (United States)

Nathaniel is a New York based attorney focused on U.S. immigration policy and international human rights law.  He earned his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and B.A. in East Asian Studies and English from Oberlin College.  Nathaniel has worked in a number of human rights and immigration law offices, including Human Rights First’s refugee assistance program and Catholic Charities’ immigration services.  He has worked primarily in the area of immigration defense, providing legal assistance to asylum applicants and low-income immigrants facing deportation.  He is particularly interested in how current immigration policy impacts the human rights of immigrant communities in the U.S.

Sarah McGrath (Australia)

Sarah McGrath is an Australian lawyer with a B.A. and Master of Global Law from the University of Sydney, Australia, and an LL.B. from the University of Technology Sydney. She recently completed a research internship at Amnesty International USA in New York, where she focused on immigration issues and maternal mortality. Sarah previously worked at the Centre for Cardiovascular and Chronic Care, University of Technology, Sydney, as a research assistant and project officer on women’s health, social determinants of health, indigenous health and health policy. She is currently a fellow of the International Council of Women’s Health Issues (ICOWHI) providing policy, research, project and administrative assistance to the organization. Sarah is a co-author of a recent position paper of ICOWHI published in Health Care for Women International, 'The Health of Women and Girls Determines the Health and Well-Being of Our Modern World: A White Paper From the International Council on Women's Health Issues'. Her areas of interest are economic and social rights, humanitarian law, refugee law and global health, particularly women’s health.

Selamawit Tesfaye Gebremedhin (Ethiopia)

Selamawit has a Bachelor of Laws (2004) and an M.A. in Gender Studies (2007) from Addis Ababa University (2004), as well as an LL.M. in International Legal Studies (Human Rights Law Certificate) from Georgetown University Law Center (2011). She has previously worked as an Assistant Judge at the Federal First Intance Court (Ethiopia), a Lecturer and Assistant Dean at St. Mary’s University College (Ethopia), and a Project Officer at the African Child Policy Forum.  Selamawit has also participated in an exchange program between the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) and Uganda Women Lawyers Association in collaboration (FIDA-U) in collaboration with Fredskorpset Norway. Most recently, Selamawit worked as a Program Officer in the UNDP Democratic Institutions Program in Addis Ababa.

Clare Sidoti (Australia)

Clare Sidoti has just completed the M.A. Theory and Practice in Human Rights at the University of Essex, UK. With a strong interest in how the creative arts can be used in the promotion and protection of human rights, this complemented her undergraduate in Theatre and Film Studies from the University of New South Wales (Australia) and her three-year acting course at the Australian Academy of Dramatic Art. Clare was previously a Research Assistant at the School of Education, University of Western Sydney (Australia) for a number of years on a range of projects on access to education. Most recently, Clare worked at the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex.