GCI Prisoner's Rights Project Intern in Kumba, Cameroon

GCI is seeking an enthusiastic self-starter with experience in law, criminal justice, or prisoners rights, to lead our Prisoner's Rights Project (PRP)!

GCI Mission

The Global Conscience Initiative seeks to address and improve Cameroon's most pressing human rights issues: chiefly, corruption, abuse of prisoners' rights, gender inequality, civil liberty deficiencies, and lack of access to efficient and effective justice. Whereby promoting and protecting the human rights and freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GCI strives to participate in the construction of a strong global conscience, through which the citizens of Cameroon can work together to advance all human rights.

Based on the belief that lasting peace must come from within a people and their own culture, GCI focuses on working with individual citizens as well as the media, government bodies, local councils, law enforcement and judicial systems. By encouraging and empowering the public to play an active role in supporting peace and development, GCI strives to help strengthen the communities with which it works. Through this, GCI facilitates the creation of networks of conscientious organisations and individuals who work together to promote democracy and human rights.

About the Prisoner's Rights Project

One of the biggest human rights issues facing Cameroon today is prisoners' rights. Accused and convicted inmates of the country's prisons and police/gendarmerie cells suffer from the numerous life-threatening conditions of these facilities, including insufficient food provisions, inadequate medical attention, overcrowding, and violent and degrading treatment at the hands of guards, police, and other staff members. These conditions are compounded by the degeneration of criminal procedure standards: arbitrary bail, judicial inefficiency, and even administrative errors resulting in lost paperwork and forgotten prisoners.

Resolving these issues has been a priority for GCI since the beginning of the organization, resulting in the formation of the Prisoners' Rights Project (PRP) in 2008. The PRP aimed to improve prison conditions and protect inmates' rights by collecting data on incarcerated persons, organizing education and training sessions for prison workers, mobilising and coordinating civil society to support prison communities, and providing legal assistance and representation to indigent detainees and prisoners.

In 2008, GCI launched the first phase of the GCI Prison project. This phase consisted of GCI staff members conducting needs assessment of incarceration facilities and organizing consultative workshops with police/gendarme officers, current and retired prison workers, civil society activists, journalists, clergymen, ex-convicts, etc. to discuss basic standards for incarceration facilities and the treatment of inmates themselves. In August 2008, riots broke out in Kumba's prisons; GCI followed the development of the riots closely and wrote a detailed report of the abuses that occurred at the hands of security officers attempting to quell the unrest.

In 2009, GCI transferred the Prisoners' Rights Project to its newly-opened office in Buea, where the PRP met with considerable success in petitioning the release of several inmates who had been lengthily detained while awaiting trial. In general, the Project found that its work were more effective in Buea, where both the law enforcement and the judiciary were more flexible and appreciative of its efforts. Meanwhile, GCI's Kumba office continued to conduct small initiatives within the project, mostly concerning general prisoners' rights advocacy.

Given the urgent need for advocacy and action on improving prison conditions and protecting prisoners' rights, GCI is currently seeking to the reopen the PRP, which has been closed since 2010.

About the Internship

An internship with GCI is an amazing experience to get real, in the field experience doing human rights work in a tight-knit NGO environment. When you arrive in Kumba you will spend some time orienting yourself with being in Cameroon, and familiarize yourself with the work of GCI and the PRP. Then you (with support from other staff and interns) will design and propose a a process of re-starting and re-invogorating the human rights project, then we will implement your proposal! This is not an administrative internship (although everyone in the office takes part in all aspects of daily office life)-- this is a real opportunity to develop your skills in project development and implementation!

Qualifications and Qualities

• Strong Written Communication
• Fluency in English
• Willingness to learn Cameroonian Pidgin
• Strong leadership skills
• Cross-cultural experience and sensitivity
• Creative problem solving
• Ability to self-direct and take initiative
• Experience working with project development and implementation
• Significant experience and knowledge of law, criminal justice, and/or prisoner's rights
• Working knowledge of French (preferred)
• Experience working in the developing world a plus

For this position Interns are expected to stay for at least 3-6 months

Internship Fees

Internship Fees cover housing in Kumba, work-related transportation, and airport collection (in Douala)

1-4 weeks- 300,000 CFA

5-8 weeks- 500,000 CFA

8- 12 weeks- 650,000 CFA

Each additional month- 150,000