Internship Opportunity – Legal Intern

PURPOSE

S/he initiates, formulates and implements strategies to address identified issues and delegation’s objectives in the legal domain. Under the supervision of the Operational Legal Adviser, s/he substantively contributes to research and analysis on specific International Humanitarian Law (IHL)-related matters, including on operational-legal and IHL national implementation matters.

 RELATIONSHIPS

• Reports directly to the Operational Legal Adviser.

• Internally, interacts/cooperates with different departments within the delegation.

• Externally, under the supervision of the Operational Legal Advisor (OLA), interacts with selected stakeholders, dealing with relevant humanitarian legal, policy and thematic issues (e.g. academic circles, ministries, judicial actors, legislators, and UN agencies, international and national NGOs).

GENERAL DUTIES

• Understands and adheres to the seven Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

• Understands and adheres to the ICRC Code of Conduct

• Understands the roles of the components of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

• Respects and observes staff regulations and security rules at all times

• Represents the ICRC in a professional manner at all times

• Develops and maintains a pleasant and conducive working environment with colleagues and line managers

• Performs all duties with the highest level of confidentiality in the interest of the employees and the ICRC

• May be asked to perform tasks not covered in this job description and to provide support to other departments when necessary

 ACCOUNTABILITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the supervision of the Operational Legal Adviser, s/he carries out the following activities:

National IHL Implementation (40%) 

• Contributes to organizing, planning and implementing seminars, dissemination programmes, and roundtables, on IHL and IHL-related topics;

• Makes presentation on general IHL and IHL thematic during external events, when required;

• Supports the legal team with the development of monitoring and evaluation tools, legal and policy recommendations.

• Contributes to research and drafting of legal compatibility studies, position papers and legal notes/memos or briefing documents as required;

• Contributes to maintaining and developing network with academic circles and IHL alumni within and beyond the academia.

• Contributes to the preparation of the ICRC national and regional/global IHL competitions within academic circles.

• Translates documents from English to other national languages and vice versa, as required

• Support the legal team in the organization and proper documentation of IHL files.

• Regularly updating IHL databases and monitoring tools as required.

 Operational legal advice (40%)

• Contributes to research on specific legal-operational thematics, including via desk research and, if required, meetings with selected stakeholders, held together with ICRC legal advisors, and takes the lead in drafting legal-operational analysis on specific thematics, as required.

• Represent the legal team in internal meetings when required.

• Under the supervision of the Legal Advisor to Operations, support other departments (management, communication, cooperation, FAS-PGE, sub-delegations) with legal-operational advice, upon request.

• Interprets/translates communications/legal documents accurately from English to other national languages and vice versa, as required.

• Registers and treats information (general and specific) accurately and with confidentially.

 Reporting (10%)

• Prepares and submits reports of activities/meetings conducted/participated in a timely manner, including minutes of workshops and meetings

• Provides contributions to specific reports (MoM, short analytical papers)

 Administration (10%)

• Ensures necessary administrative and financial work is implemented on time;

• Knows, applies and complies with all the administrative procedures linked to her/his work, as required.

• Provide other administrative and organizational support to the legal team as needed.

Job Requirements

• LL.B., including knowledge of and strong interest in international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Having completed or pursuing LLM in these fields is a strong asset. 

• Excellent research, analytical and writing or communication skills of legal and operation matters.

• Experience in participating in a national, regional or international IHL competitions (ideally) or human rights/criminal law moot courts is a strong asset.

• Capacity to work in tight schedules and meet deadlines.

• Proficiency in English and Amharic. Knowledge of other international and local languages is an added value. 

• Application deadline: 16 October 2026

How To Apply

Applicants shall submit their electronic CVs and cover letter through the ethiojobs.net website. 

Women applicants and persons with disabilities are highly encouraged to apply.

The ICRC has zero tolerance for fraud, sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment and discrimination. Therefore, ICRC Ethiopia will maintain the right to conduct background and reference checks on the final candidate who accepts a conditional offer to this position. All ICRC staff should uphold the standards of ICRC’s Code of Conduct.

Please note that only short-listed candidates will be contacted at all stages of the selection process.

The ICRC values diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive working environment. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates.