By Marcus Whiting
I spent five days doing work experience at René Cassin, and it was a highly interesting and rewarding experience. Across the week, I learnt about the history of human rights and their application in the modern day. I found the whole time a very rewarding experience where I learnt what it’s like to work at a charity and within a team.
In my five days, I began by improving my education into the organisation of René Cassin, their campaigns and human rights. Over the course of the day, I progressed to starting key research to help the organisation with communications to Jewish communities around the UK. Over the course of the following days, I went into the office, where I began doing constituency research and future independent research going towards drafting a letter to a UN Rapporteur. This improved my research skills and skills in putting together research in an easy-to-consume way. I really enjoyed the mixture of both feeling part of the team and being able to work independently. I was included in team meetings and given positive feedback on my work, while being able to manage the tasks I was given independently, helping me improve my skills in time management.
I found my task to draft the UN submission most interesting and the most rewarding. It was nice working on a project where you felt it could have a real positive impact on the world. As part of this, I conducted research and settled on writing a draft letter about the Uyghur communities, who are a persecuted group in northwestern China. However, this wasn’t the task I found most difficult. I was given the fun but challenging task of reigning in my creative side. Where I designed a booklet to help educate young children about human rights and current issues surrounding the Uyghurs and modern slavery. Although it was difficult to start, I found it pleasing as I was doing work which I found genuinely challenging. I then submitted this and was grateful for the good feedback I was given from the team.
Working in a team was lots of fun, and a nice change from school life. I really enjoyed working with the team in team meetings, where we discussed our work collectively and also discussed strategy when it was time to appeal to different segments of people across society about issues concerning human rights such as the ECHR. This helped bring the work I had done to its application in reality.
Overall, it was an absolutely wonderful week, and I am grateful for the team putting up with me and being so accommodating. I really enjoyed the experience, and it gave me the unique opportunity to do real work which contributed to society for the better. I also liked how much I learnt over the week, not just about the history of human rights but the
skills I gained and actually seeing the on the groundwork done by charitable organisations. I am very thankful to the team and charity for having me and hope to continue my new interest in human rights in my own free time.
