Social Justice Initiatives | Columbia Law School

Human Rights Internship Program (HRIP)

“Experiencing firsthand the difficulties of the poor and marginalized only reinforced my commitment to public service.” —2011 CLS Human Rights Intern

Unique to Columbia, the Human Rights Internship Program (HRIP), founded in 1984 by Professor Jack Greenberg, has a long tradition of providing Columbia students with the opportunity to do human rights law-related work throughout the world. The program’s more than 1,700 “graduates” are leading human rights lawyers throughout the world who, among other things, have been instrumental in drafting the South African Constitution; documenting human-rights abuses of gay and lesbian youth in America’s prisons; establishing International Criminal Tribunals, helping to write a Freedom of Information Act for Guatemala; and worked to improve environmental law in Hungary. Interns from years past also work on the domestic front, now lead community economic-development efforts, head legal services offices, fight against employment discrimination, and defend death-row inmates.