Internship - Records & Arviches Section in Geneva, Switzerland

Terms of Reference
Internship in Records & Archives Section, DER

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering an internship position within the Records and Archives Section in our Geneva Headquarters in Switzerland.
The internship will be within the Reference Unit of UNHCR¿s Records and Archives Section, which sits within the Department of External Relations (DER). The archives team receives, manages, preserves and makes UNHCR¿s archives holdings accessible to UNHCR staff members globally and also to the general public. This internship is a unique opportunity to gain experience in information management within an international organisation.
UNHCR is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. We are in over 125 countries, using our expertise to protect and care for millions.

Title: Intern
Working Unit: Records and Archives Section, DER
Duty Station: Geneva, Switzerland
Duration: Two months (Extendable up to six months)
Contract Type: Internship
Closing date: 2 February 2020
Start date: 17 February 2020 (a different start date may be possible, by agreement)

Organisational context
Established in 1996, the Records and Archives Section of UNHCR manages UNHCR records during their life cycle in paper and digital format. The archives contain information from the founding of the organization in 1950 to the present day. They also hold several pre-UNHCR collections, which provide valuable background to the development of protection work.

The position
We are seeking an individual with an eye for detail, a passion for research and an interest in history and archives to complete an internship within the UNHCR Records and Archives Section.
The Reference Unit works to research and answer enquiries using the written history and institutional memory of UNHCR, selects and prepares material for long-term preservation and manages a busy reading room for welcoming visiting researchers to UNHCR¿s HQ.
You will work closely with the Archivists and Preservation Officer to document collections of records, conduct pieces of research and answer enquiries, digitize records on demand and undertake conservation and preservation tasks.

Duties and responsibilities
¿ Create finding aids for unlisted collections
¿ Assist in the Yugoslavia Preservation Project
¿ Undertake research tasks
¿ Assist in the Records Management tasks
¿ Support the Digital Preservation programme
¿ Other duties (compilation of statistics, research, supervising researchers, retrieving and re-shelving files, administrative tasks, outreach tasks)

Essential minimum qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications Required:
In order to be considered for an internship, candidates must meet the following eligibility criteria:
¿ Recent graduates (those persons who completed their studies within one year of applying) or current student in a graduate/undergraduate school programme from a university of higher education facility accredited by UNESCO; and
¿ Have completed at least two years of undergraduate studies in a field relevant or of interest to the work of the Organization.

Please note that candidates who have immediate relatives (father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister) working as staff members or Affiliate Workforce of UNHCR are not eligible.

Desirable qualifications and experience:
¿ Records and archives management;
¿ History or related discipline;
¿ Information management.

Location
The successful candidate will be based with the team at the UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Conditions & Allowances:
It is a full-time role with working hours starting from 9.00am to 6:00pm Monday to Friday (40 hours per week).

Allowance: Interns who do not receive financial support from an outside party will receive an allowance to partially help to cover the cost of food, local transportation and living expenses.

The UNHCR workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages and opinions. UNHCR seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. Applications are encouraged from all qualified candidates without distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity. Please note that the closing date to apply to this internship advertisement is Sunday 2 February 2020 (midnight Geneva time).