The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is looking for several Political Regime Research Fellows. The fellowship will run from February 2024 through August 2024, with the possibility of extension.
About the Human Rights Foundation:
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. HRF is one of the few international organizations that focuses exclusively on promoting human rights in authoritarian regimes.
Through our Political Regime or “Tyranny Tracker” research, we are able to focus our resources on more than 90 countries ruled by authoritarian regimes — countries whose regimes systematically deny their citizens meaningful electoral competition, basic political freedoms, and an independent judiciary willing and capable of checking the regime’s ability to repress basic democratic freedoms.
About the Position:
Political Regime Research Fellows will contribute to a long-term research project that monitors political freedom in 206 countries and territories in the world. The research project supports HRF’s mission statement of promoting and protecting human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.
Research Fellows will be asked to research and prepare, or review, summaries and full reports on countries in one of the regions that HRF works on (the Americas, Sub Saharan Africa, Asia-Pacific & South Asia, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia). Using our checklist of indicators covering issues of electoral competition, freedom of dissent, and judicial independence, Research Fellows will be expected to make a convincing argument why a given country should be classified as democratic, hybrid authoritarian, or fully authoritarian. Research Fellows will work with members of HRF’s Legal and Policy Team and Regional Experts.
This position can be remote.
Skills & Requirements:
- Strong research, analytical, and writing skills (Required)
- 1-2 years of demonstrated relevant regional knowledge or prior experience working on a given region, including the Americas, Sub Saharan Africa, Asia-Pacific & South Asia, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (Required)
- Prior experience in or knowledge of international relations or affairs, political science, human rights, or international or comparative law (Required)
- Graduate degree in political science, international relations, or related field such as comparative or international law (Required)
- Relevant language skills, such as Spanish, Chinese, French or Russian (strongly preferred)
- Prior experience in the democratization field or knowledge of democratization literature (strongly preferred)
- Passionate about research and writing
- Detail-oriented and self-motivated
- Able to work well in a collaborative environment, as well as independently
- A strong affinity for HRF’s mission statement
- Based in the United States (preferred), but highly qualified candidates from other regions will be considered.
