- Legal Jobs
- Legal Articles
- Attorney
- Attorney Career Advice
- Attorney Job Descriptions
- Human Rights Attorney at Home and Internationally
Support PDF,DOC,DOCX,TXT,XLS,WPD,HTM,HTML fils up to 5MB
Human Rights Attorney at Home and Internationally
by Harrison Barnes, Managing Director - BCG Attorney Search

Human Rights Attorneys have a broad selection of issues to defend. A Degree in law can be expanded to a Masters in Human Rights. Human Rights Law is often practiced internationally. The United Nations determines much of the International laws for Human Rights and countries send their representatives to assist in international law-making. Many human rights lawyers have represented their countries at the United Nations.
''Andrew Hudson is from Melbourne, Australia and began his work in human rights as an attorney to the indigents and refugees. He served as a delegate for Australia to the United Nations. Hudson also worked as a Special Reporter on Extrajudicial Executions for the United Nations.''1 He currently serves on staff with Human Rights First in New York. He is the Senior Associate of the Human Rights Defenders Program.
Another attorney for human rights has worn many different hats as a human rights lawyer and hails from India. She believes human rights lawyering is dynamic and can be done in so many different ways. Sharanjeet Parmar has organized training in Liberia for child protection workers. She organized community-based lobbyists to petition the Indian government to change views on sexuality concerning Aids and HIV. Her belief was ''that if you protect human rights, you protect human health.''2 Parmar is now the Clinical Advocacy Fellow with the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School.
The organization previous mentioned, Human Rights First, employs human rights lawyers to assist them in their campaigns. Not only do they employ lawyers, also they employee other legal support give opportunity for future hopefuls to get in some good experience with human rights. They are located in New York and Washington DC and their mission statement is:
''Building respect for human rights and the rule of law will help ensure the dignity to which every individual is entitled and will stem tyranny, extremism, intolerance, and violence.''3
Human Rights law practiced nationally and internationally is expected to maintain an average growth and be very competitive with all the graduates coming out of law school. Lawyers from a good school with high marks will get the best jobs. In addition to a law degree, lawyers will do better with specializations like human rights that are a specific field of study in law. Candidates of human rights law will find schools that cater to their interests in human rights. The salaries for Human Rights lawyers begin around $45,000 in non-government and non-profit organizations and range up to 200K for government lawyers defending human rights.
Human rights will continue to be a developing need as the world continues policy making to govern rights in many countries through the United Nations. Human rights work could require travel depending on the type of work lawyers find themselves accepting, especially international lawyers. The salary seems to run in line with the travel requirements. A good human rights attorney can change the world.
Resources:
1 Human Rights First, 2009. www.humanrightsfirst.org.
2 Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School, March 11, 2008. © 2006 The President and Fellows of Harvard College.
3 Human Rights First, 2009. www.humanrightsfirst.org.
Please see the following articles for more information about jobs related to public interest law:
- Advocacy Jobs: What They Are and How to Get Them
- How to Become a Prisoner Advocate
- Make a Career Change as Public Defender
- How Lucrative Is a Career as an Animal Welfare Attorney: Advice by Anna Morrison-Ricordati
Article Category

Featured Testimonials
LawCrossing has a whole bunch of information about the latest happenings on legal affairs. A very informative website!
Cheri
Facts
LawCrossing Fact #53: Users stand out when they subscribe to LawCrossing because LawCrossing is an exclusive job board; subscribers have a huge edge when it comes to finding a job.
Do you want a better legal career?
Hi, I’m Harrison Barnes. I’m serious about improving Lawyers’ legal careers. My only question is, will it be yours?

About Harrison Barnes
Harrison is the founder of BCG Attorney Search and several companies in the legal employment space that collectively gets thousands of attorneys jobs each year. Harrison is widely considered the most successful recruiter in the United States and personally places multiple attorneys most weeks. His articles on legal search and placement are read by attorneys, law students and others millions of times per year.
Success Stories
- Theresa D. Colorado
Why You'll Love LawCrossing
Legal Job Market Updates
Stay Ahead. Get your weekly career digest giving you:
- the latest legal jobs
- legal employment news and trends
- career advice and more
- What is LawCrossing?
- Who Else Is Ready to Never Have to Worry About Recessions and the Legal Job Market Again?
- Why Job Boards Are Evil!
- Blow Away Your Competition with LawCrossing
- Get More Employers to Respond to Your Applications and Hire You
- Why You Are Not Aware of 95% of the Jobs Out There
- Why LawCrossing's Marketing Problem is Good for You
- Why It is Important to See Every Job Site There is
- Private versus Public Job Boards
- Why You Need to Manage Your Job Search in One Place
- Who Else Wants Their Phone Ringing Off the Hook With Quality Job Interviews?
- Do Not Use Another Job Board Until You Read This
