Student Internship Spotlight: Ivan Lopez Justiniano

Ivan Lopez Justiniano is a second year Master of Human Rights student concentrating on sexuality and gender identity. This summer, I interned at Minneapolis-based Global Rights for Women and supported Professors Barbara Frey and David Crow's work on disappearances in Mexico. His internship was generously supported by a fellowship from the Human Rights Program.

Human Rights Program (HRP): Tell us about where you interned this summer and what you worked on while you were there.

Ivan Lopez Justiniano (ILJ): During this summer I interned at Global Rights for Women, an organization that “works with leaders around the world to advance women’s and girls’ human rights to live free from violence through legal reform through institutional and social change. I worked primarily on a research paper that focused on the need for an international treaty on violence against women by assessing the international and regional mechanisms that exist. I also focused on legal research in Macedonia, by examining the laws on violence against women there. Other projects consisted of research on FGM (forced genital mutilation) issues in Minnesota and its state laws, other legal research on and translation of Mexico’s laws on violence against women, and research on the need for inclusion of lesbian, bisexual and/or transgender women in women’s rights organizations’ work, specifically those working on issues of violence against women.

Outside of my work at Global Rights for Women, I also collaborated with Barbara Frey and David Crow on the creation of a database of enforced disappearances in Mexico. My tasks consisted of coding news articles of cases of disappearances in the States of Jalisco, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and Guerrero.

HRP: What were a few major takeaways or lessons that you learned this summer through your internship?

ILJ: With my two internships I was able to work on multiple projects at the same time. At first it was a little overwhelming. But, they gave me the experience I needed in order to realize what I would really like to work on and which positions I would like to apply for in the future. I now know that I ideally would like to work in a position that allows me to combine legal and advocacy tactics in furthering human rights, and in particular, using human rights fact finding. I hope to eventually work at an organization similar to Global Rights for Women in a position that specifically focuses on sexual orientation and gender identity.

HRP: How was the internship related to your course of study, and how do you think it will help you in your career?

ILJ: My internships helped me achieve new skills that could potentially be used in my future work, especially on legal reform related to issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. Specifically, I learned the mechanics of doing legal research in both domestic and international areas of law.