OPBP Internship Programme
Internship Fund Recipients Announced!
The Oxford Pro Bono Publico (OPBP) Executive Committee is delighted to announce the recipients of its 2011 Internship Fund Awards.
The following five candidates have all been granted an award to enable them to undertake an internship at a public interest organisation.
OPBP looks forward to hearing about the interns’ experiences, and to developing stronger links with these organisations in the future.
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Guruparan Kumaravadivel
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Guruparan will undertake a two month internship at the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) in Sri Lanka. During the internship he will engage in both desk and field research focusing on the political and policy impacts of an Asian Development Bank funded Water Supply Project in Northern Sri Lanka. This research will feed into CPA’s advocacy programme on minority rights in relation to post-war development in the North and East of Sri Lanka. The CPA is a leading think tank in Sri Lanka and for the past 15 years has been engaged in public policy research and advocacy, including by means of public interest litigation. |
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Peter Morcos
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Peter will undertake an internship at the AIRE Centre in London for a period of two-three months. He will be working as a caseworker, which will involve providing legal advice to individuals. He will also assist the Director in cases and interventions before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The AIRE Centre is a small not-for-profit organisation that provides assistance to individuals submitting applications to the European Court of Human Rights and intervenes in both UK domestic courts and before the European Court of Justice. |
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Chris McConnachie |
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Chris will undertake a two month internship at the Legal Resources Centre in Grahamstown, South Africa. As part of his internship Chris will research and co-author a report for potential publication on recent litigation aimed at improving the conditions of ‘mud schools’. He will also assist with research for ongoing and pending cases, and will assist with client consultations. The LRC is an independent, client-based, non-profit public interest law clinic working to provide justice for the vulnerable and marginalised. The LRC is one of OPBP’s most highly valued partner organisations as a result of the public interest litigation and advocacy that it engages in. |
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Mimi Zou
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Mimi will undertake a two month internship with the Netherlands School of Human Rights Research. During her internship she will be involved with research for two major projects: one on Chinese public law and administrative litigation, and another on the European Court of Human Rights. The Netherlands School of Human Rights Research is an inter-university alliance of universities and research institutes. It works on a variety of joint research projects with partner institutions around the world. |
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James Peters |
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James will undertake a volunteer placement with Reprieve in the United States from September to December 2011. During his placement James will be involved in file management, investigation and legal research, both for individual cases and systemic reform. Reprieve (US) is the United States component of an international charity dedicated to providing legal representation and humanitarian assistance to those facing the death penalty, and to raising awareness more generally about the death penalty. |
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Congratulations to all our recipients!

OPBP would like to thank the University of Oxford Law Faculty, Mr Kofi Adjepong-Boateng and the Magdalen College Trust for their generous support of the Internship Programme.
We are always looking for funding opportunities in order to expand this programme – if you are interested in donating please contact us at OPBP@law.ox.ac.uk.
Photography courtesy of K Leithead Photography






