Plenty to Learn and Plenty to Do: Proposals, Memorandums, and Rule of Law Projects
Well, it’s official. I am more than halfway done with my internship at NCSC International, as my first five weeks have wrapped up and I only have five more left. Time has really flown, especially during this past week. I was by far the busiest this past week than any other week during the internship. I have been involved in a variety of projects within the International Programs Division. Some have involved internationally-based while others have been transactional work, but I am thankful to have been able to juggle them all successfully (so far).
I had a slew of international assignments this past week. To start, on Monday, I helped finalize a grant proposal involving human trafficking in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The proposal involved developing support systems in cooperation with Central American governments to combat human trafficking in the area. With human trafficking involving sex work, forced labor, and organ harvesting, it was quite the heavy topic to start the week with. Specifically, I researched and wrote about Costa Rica’s laws on human trafficking, prostitution, and child exploitation, resulting in my own contribution to the proposal. I then helped with the editing and review of the rest of the document.
After wrapping up the Nicaragua and Costa Rica proposal, I began working on a memorandum on judicial ethics. A program manager who is currently travelling abroad requested a memorandum comparing Bangladesh’s judicial code of conduct to international judicial standards, Western countries’ codes of judicial conduct, and non-Western countries’ codes of judicial conduct. After going through many different documents involving judicial ethics, I really learned a lot about the topic, which is something that I am sure will come in handy when I take the required law school class Professional Responsibility in the future.
Another project of note for the week was my work on finalizing a report on a Kosovar legal professionalism program. While NCSC International wrapped up a project in Kosovo a few months ago, they are still finalizing a report that one of Kosovar consultants put together. The report analyzed the dynamics of gender and youth within the legal profession of Kosovo. The report dealt mostly with statistics, survey responses, and data analysis. After working on the report, I really gained a better feel for what rule of law projects are like and how they can impact a country that is aiming to improve and develop a stronger legal system.
I also continued to work on some transactional assignments throughout the week. On the docket, currently, I have projects on a contract review and approval policy, a government grants guide, and a revision of NCSC International’s employment policies and procedures. While those assignments kind of took a backseat this week, I am looking forward to working on them some more in the coming days.
Even after wrapping up this blog post, I am starting to remember some other assignments that I have for next week as well. I feel very fortunate to be trusted by the attorneys and staff that I work with to be involved in so many different assignments.