New month, new interns

In early August the second group of students started a summer placement programme at the Foundation’s legal department. This month, the interns are six law students from the Universities in Kraków, Wrocław, Toruń and Warsaw.

As part of their placement at the HFHR, the students participate in the works of the initial case review team and are involved in the Foundation’s key legal programmes, including the Legal Intervention Programme, Strategic Litigation Programme and the “Innocence” Law Clinic.

Beginning from this year’s internship programme, students also participate in training workshops devoted to such topics as the drafting of a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights, among other things. Apart from this, the interns attend meetings related to the HFHR’s work – for example, they accompanied the Foundation’s lawyers visiting the Constitutional Tribunal.

“This year, I completed a post-grad programme in international and human rights law. I’m planning to write a PhD thesis on this subject so the Foundation was for me an obvious destination for an internship”, said Katarzyna Szepelak, an alumna of the Law Faculty at the Jagiellonian University of Kraków.

The students review cases sent to the Foundation, prepare analyses of legal provisions and draw up submissions. The interns also monitor and observe judicial proceedings.

“First of all, I would like to tell all future interns this: it’s worth to come to the HFHR”, claims Michalina Gdulak, a fifth-year law student from the University of Wrocław. “We are working down-to-earth cases, showing everyday problems that people deal with. At the same time, some of these cases are so complex, which makes them very educative and eye-opening”, she adds.