IACHR Internship Program 2027 Internships in Washington DC, OAS (National Offices and Remote)

Last verified: 6 September 2026

You are a final year law student in Lahore. Or a journalism graduate in Bogotá who keeps reading about petitions filed against her own government and wants to see that machinery from the inside. Or a translator in Rabat who works comfortably in French and Spanish and has never once thought of an international human rights body as a realistic employer.

All three of you can apply to the same program, and most of you have already assumed you cannot. This post is arranged around that. Instead of one long list of rules, it splits into the routes people actually take into the Inter American Commission on Human Rights internship, so you can read your own situation and skip the parts written for someone else.

What Is the IACHR Internship Program?

The Inter American Commission on Human Rights is the body that receives petitions, issues precautionary measures and reports on human rights conditions across the Americas. It runs its internship inside the wider internship program of the Organization of American States, which has been operating for more than forty years.

Interns work directly with the professionals and staff of the Executive Secretariat on the activities the Commission carries out, with assignments handed down by the Secretariat itself. The program runs three sessions a year on fixed dates. The 2027 Winter and Spring session at Washington DC headquarters, and Session I in the OAS national offices, both run from 14 January 2027 to 30 April 2027. Applications for that cycle opened on 24 August 2026 and close on 11 September 2026 at 23:59 Washington time.

One point the Commission makes about its own purpose is worth reading carefully, because it explains what the selectors are looking for. The stated benefit of the program is that the knowledge acquired goes back to the intern’s home country afterwards. Former interns now represent victims, file petitions and precautionary measures with the Commission, advise civil society organisations and work with government bodies and ombudsman offices. Selectors are not looking for someone who wants a line on a resume. They are looking for someone who will use the training.

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Is This Internship for You?

This is for you if you have finished at least two years of an undergraduate degree, or are a graduate student, or have just entered your first professional job. If your cumulative academic average sits at 75% or above. If you can work in two of the four official OAS languages, meaning English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. If your field is law, international cooperation and fundraising, journalism, graphic design, web design, computer information technology or translation. And if you can carry your own living costs for fifteen weeks, because nothing here is paid.

This is not for you if English is your only OAS language, whatever else you bring. If you are in your first or second year of an undergraduate degree, because you become eligible only after finishing the second year. If you have already done an OAS internship once, since the regulations prohibit repeating or extending one. Or if the budget only works on the assumption of a stipend, because there is no salary, no stipend, no allowance and no financial assistance of any kind, in any modality.

Are You a Law Student or a New Lawyer? Start Here

You are the core intake, and you should know what that means in both directions. The Commission’s stated objective for the program is to give law students and recent law graduates from the region practical training in human rights, working alongside the lawyers of the Executive Secretariat. Your placement will sit closest to the substantive work of the Commission: the petition system, the protection mechanisms, the country files.

It also means you are competing against the largest pool. Every law faculty in the Americas knows this program exists, and the applications arrive in volume. Two things separate the files that get an interview from the ones that do not, and neither is your grade point average, since everyone who reaches that stage has already cleared the same bar.

The first is specificity about the Commission itself. A cover letter that could have been addressed to any international organisation reads exactly like what it is. Name the part of the Commission’s work that draws you, whether that is the petition and case system, precautionary measures, a thematic rapporteurship or country monitoring, and say what you have already done that connects to it. A moot court, a legal aid clinic, a semester paper on a specific case, an internship at a domestic rights organisation: any of these anchor the letter in something real.

The second is the return argument. Given how openly the Commission frames the program around interns taking their knowledge home, a letter that says what you intend to do with the training in your own country is answering a question the selectors are actually asking themselves. Do not overwrite it. Two honest sentences do more than a paragraph of ambition.

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Are You a Journalist, Designer, Translator or IT Student?

This is the route almost nobody outside law knows about, and it is the reason this post is worth sending to friends who are not lawyers.

The IACHR takes students and recent graduates in international cooperation and fundraising, journalism, graphic design, computer information technology and translation. The Press Office specifically receives journalism, graphic design and web design applicants and puts them to work on promoting human rights across the region, which for a communications student is about as direct a portfolio piece as the field offers. Translation applicants are welcome provided they work in at least two of the four official OAS languages, and information technology applicants are recruited alongside them.

The strategic point here is simple arithmetic. These desks recruit fewer interns than the legal teams, but they also receive far fewer applications, because the program is described everywhere as a law internship. You are entering a thinner pool for a placement that carries the same institutional weight on your record and the same certificate at the end.

What you should adjust is the evidence you lead with. A designer needs work that can be looked at, so make sure your portfolio is reachable and current before you write anything else. A journalist needs published pieces, and student publication work counts. A translator should be explicit about which two OAS languages they work between and in which direction, since that pairing is the whole qualification. Someone in information technology should name the systems and tools they have actually used rather than listing coursework titles.

Do You Meet the Academic and Language Bar?

Two requirements filter more applicants than everything else on the page combined, and both are stated in single lines that are easy to skim past.

The academic side has three parts:

1. Your cumulative academic average must be equivalent to 75% or higher, as shown on your academic record.
2. Undergraduates must have completed their second year of study before applying.
3. Graduate students at any stage and entry level professionals are eligible without that second year condition.

Your transcript is the proof. It must be issued by your institution and show every course taken with the grades attached. Degree certificates and certificates from short courses are explicitly not wanted and do not substitute for a transcript.

The language side is the harder wall. You must be proficient in two of the four languages of the Organization: Spanish, English, French or Portuguese. Not one, two. For a great many applicants from South Asia, Africa or East Asia, strong English plus a national language that is not on that list does not satisfy the rule. Spanish is the practical second language to have, because most activity at headquarters runs in English or Spanish and no simultaneous interpretation is provided during the mandatory orientation sessions, though captions are available in multiple languages.

If you are aiming at a national office rather than headquarters, add one more expectation on top. You are expected to have a working knowledge of the official language of the country where that office sits, because you will be folded into its daily activities rather than kept on separate tasks.

There is also one optional document that helps a specific group of readers. If your university will credit this internship towards your degree, attach an official letter from the institution stating what it requires, including the placement length your program demands. It is not mandatory, but the program keeps fixed session dates and needs to know when a candidate is bound to a set duration.

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Can You Afford an Unpaid Internship?

Most readers skim this block on the official page. It is the block that decides whether the opportunity is actually available to you, so work through it before you spend an evening on the application.

• No salary, no stipend, no allowance and no financial assistance in any modality. Participation creates no employment relationship with the OAS.
• Travel, housing, meals and local transport are entirely your responsibility.
• Valid health insurance is compulsory for every intern, remote interns included, and proof is required before you start.
• Interns working in person at headquarters must meet a higher standard: at least USD 500,000 in medical cover, plus hospitalisation, emergency services, medical repatriation and emergency evacuation.
• The OAS provides no insurance and pays no medical costs for interns.
• Applicants are expected to have sufficient resources to support themselves for the whole period.

Fifteen and a half weeks of rent, food and transport in Washington DC is a serious sum, and a policy at that level of cover is not a token expense either. Cost it out before you apply rather than after you are accepted, because candidates do decline offers over exactly this.

One caution while you are here. Nothing in this process involves paying an agent, a consultant or a placement service. The form is free and it sits on the OAS website. Anyone charging you for access to it is selling something that does not exist.

Are You Applying From Outside the Americas?

Good news first: nationality is not a barrier. The program has no nationality restriction at all, and you do not need to be a national of an OAS member state to take part. That single fact disqualifies most of the assumptions readers arrive with.

Your realistic route is the virtual modality. Anyone living outside the United States can take part remotely from their home country for the full duration of the program, in both the headquarters session and the national office session. That removes flights, relocation and Washington rent from the calculation entirely and leaves you with the insurance requirement, a reliable internet connection and your own computer.

There is a second route worth naming, though you should treat it as rare rather than routine. Foreign nationals living outside the United States can work in person at headquarters if they are selected and approved for G4 visa sponsorship by the General Secretariat. That decision is made case by case as part of the selection, and every word above about paying your own way still applies to it.

The thing to plan around is the clock rather than the paperwork. Internships are full time at forty hours a week, running from 9:00 to 17:30 Washington time. For a reader in Pakistan or India that lands squarely overnight. The program does allow other work arrangements to be discussed with a potential supervisor if you are invited to interview, so raise it honestly at that stage rather than accepting an offer and then struggling through four months of night shifts.

Are You Already Living in the United States?

Your options are wider, and the modality you end up in is decided by the recruiting area based on institutional need rather than by your preference alone.

Headquarters, in person. Open to United States citizens and permanent residents, and to people already living in the Washington metropolitan area on a valid F1 or J1 student visa, or a G4 dependent visa with a matching work permit.

Headquarters, virtual. Open to people in the United States who fall into any of those same citizen, permanent resident or visa categories.

National offices, in person. For readers living in another OAS member state, this route requires you to be a national of the country where the office sits, or to hold a valid visa or permit that lets you work there.

National offices, virtual. Open to participation from your current city or country of residence for the entire program.

If you are in Washington already, the in person route is worth taking over the remote one even though the work is identical. The weekly orientation program includes visits to institutions such as the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank, along with networking activities and mentoring sessions on career development, and those are the parts of a placement that translate into a reference and a contact list rather than a certificate.

What Gets an Application Rejected Before It Is Read?

Every application is prescreened against the minimum requirements before any recruiting area sees it, and anything incomplete or deficient is disqualified at that stage. This is a mechanical check, not a judgement on your potential, which is exactly why losing your application to it stings.

1. A photograph on your resume. Stated on the official page as an automatic disqualification. Many countries teach students to include a headshot. Remove it.
2. A resume with no cover letter. Also an automatic disqualification. The two must be combined into a single PDF and uploaded together.
3. The wrong academic document. A degree certificate is not a transcript. Send the record that lists courses and grades.
4. Emailing your documents. Supporting material is accepted only through the electronic application form. Anything sent to the program inbox does not count as submitted.
5. Filing near midnight on the closing day. The cut off is 23:59 Washington time on 11 September 2026, on a form under load from every applicant who also waited.

On the cover letter itself, the program asks for no more than one page addressed specifically to the OAS Internship Program. It should introduce you, explain why you suit this placement, and expand on the achievements, skills and interests your resume can only list.

What Do the Fifteen Weeks Actually Look Like?

• Fixed dates: 14 January 2027 to 30 April 2027, with a set start and a set end.
• Full time, forty hours a week, 9:00 to 17:30 Washington time.
• A reliable internet connection and a personal computer are required throughout, in every modality.
• The weekly orientation program is compulsory for all interns and runs in English and Spanish.
• Attend at least 80% of those sessions and you receive a certificate of completion. Fall below that and you do not.
• Specific objectives are agreed between you and your supervisor in the first week, then monitored and evaluated at the end.
• Information handled during the internship belongs to the General Secretariat, is confidential, and cannot be used for personal or professional gain.

The orientation program is not filler. Each week brings a different senior speaker on a project or subject inside the Organization, and for many interns it is where the lasting value of the placement comes from.

How Do You Apply, Step by Step?

1. Open the OAS Internship Program page at oas.org/en/saf/dhr/internships and confirm the application system still shows as open.
2. Read the requirements section and the frequently asked questions on that page in full. The program states directly that this is where disqualifications come from.
3. Assemble your transcript, your combined resume and cover letter PDF, and your university accreditation letter if one applies.
4. Complete the electronic application form and state your interest in the IACHR explicitly, selecting the areas you want to be considered for.
5. Upload every document through the form and confirm each has attached before submitting.
6. Submit well before 23:59 Washington time on 11 September 2026.

After the deadline, the Internship Program team screens all applications against the minimum requirements. Those that pass go into a pool, and roughly thirty different areas of the General Secretariat read that pool and pick the profiles that suit the positions they are offering. Suitable candidates are invited to interview. When a candidate accepts an offer, the program runs a final verification and approves the selection. Applications also undergo a review for real, potential or apparent conflicts of interest.

This is precisely why naming the IACHR on the form matters. You are not applying to the Commission directly. You are entering a shared pool that Commission recruiters read alongside everyone else, and an interest you did not record is an interest they cannot see.

On numbers, the headcount is capped by the Organization and averages 60 to 80 interns per session across the whole of the OAS, with the Commission taking a share of that. And on timing, one rule should shape your thinking: you may take part in the OAS Internship Program only once, and repeating or extending an internship is prohibited even in a different department or country office. Rejection carries no penalty and you may reapply as often as you like. Accepting does. Spend that single entry deliberately.

The Commission’s own page on the program sits at oas.org IACHR internships, and general queries go to internships@oas.org.

What Readers Ask Us About This One

Is there an age limit?

No. The program sets no age limit at all. It is aimed at undergraduates, graduate students and young professionals, and the average participant is 24, with work pitched at entry level professional experience. An older career changer is not excluded by rule, though the assignments are designed for someone at the start of a career.

My university does not grade in percentages. Do I have to convert my average before applying?

No, and you should not try. Submit an official or unofficial transcript, or another academic record from your institution, showing your cumulative average exactly as your institution states it. The program reviews the grading scale your university uses and decides for itself whether your performance meets the 75% equivalent.

Do I need a language certificate such as TOEFL for my second language?

Not to apply. Certification is not a prerequisite. However, an area interested in taking you may ask for certification, or conduct part of the interview in that language to judge your level. Claiming a proficiency you cannot demonstrate in conversation is a poor bet.

If the OAS sponsors my visa, can I take a second job in Washington to cover costs?

No. Any intern whose visa is sponsored by the OAS must be a full time intern and cannot accept any other job outside the OAS. Since the placement itself pays nothing, that combination is the single most important thing to budget around before accepting an in person offer at headquarters.

Can I apply to both the Washington session and a national office session?

Yes, you can apply to both. You can only take part once, though. If you are interviewed and offered a placement by headquarters and by a country office, you have to choose one and decline the other.

How long after the deadline will I know?

Everyone hears back, selected or not. Successful candidates receive an official letter of acceptance from the OAS Internship Program, and those letters have gone out around one month before the session’s official start date. Candidates who are not selected are notified by email when the cycle closes.

Your Next Move Before 11 September

If your second OAS language is real and your average clears 75%, this is a two evening job. Tonight, request your transcript, because that is the one document with an institutional delay attached to it. Tomorrow, write the cover letter, strip the photograph off your resume, merge the two into one PDF and fill in the form.

If the language rule or the money rules you out this cycle, close the tab without regret and set a reminder to watch the program’s calendar page for the next application window. Three sessions run every year, and you only ever get one turn at accepting a place. Spending it on a session you cannot afford would be the real loss here.