Berkeley Law J.D. students have the opportunity to participate in the INHR Program in Geneva. In the fall of their 2nd or 3rd year of law school, students will take a 1-unit seminar taught by Eric Richardson, president of INHR, to learn about the United Nations and the Human Rights Council. During the fall, each student will be assigned a country, and the students will spend the subsequent spring semester in Geneva working with that country’s UN delegation. Students will draft interventions, statements, and reports for their delegation. Students will also represent their respective country at the Human Rights Council, held annually in February and March.
Previous students have worked with the ambassadors of Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Fiji, The Marshall Islands, The Maldives, Costa Rica and Sierra Leone.
Eligible students can earn 8-12 units of law school credit while conducting a field placement. Accepted students should start by scheduling an advising appointment. Interested students must take the INHR seminar offered every fall before participating in the away field placement.
Here is the link to the 2025-2026 INHR Application: https://forms.gle/NgY8YR6k3P6eDQvc7.
Applications are due May 19th at 12 pm PT.
Why INHR?
INHR is a non-profit organization that helps small and mid-sized states gain access to the United Nations. INHR aims to level the U.N. policy playing field by building the capacity of smaller organizations and delegations so that they can better advance their perspectives.
Eric Richardson, INHR President and Lecturer
About the Instructor
Eric Richardson is a lawyer, a former diplomat and INHR’s Founding President. He is also China coordinator at PAX sapiens. He served the U.S. Government working in and on China, North Korea, Libya, Tunisia, New Zealand and Israel, and headed the U.S. team at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva from 2013-2016. He draws on his education at Stanford and his work as a regulatory attorney in Washington, D.C. to lead INHR’s artificial intelligence (AI) mediation efforts and teaches law at the University of Michigan and University of California Berkeley Law Schools.
Eric published his negotiations handbook, The Art of Getting More Back in Diplomacy, in 2021. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Stanford University, a Master’s degree in Law and World Politics from the University of Michigan, and a juris doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School. He speaks Chinese, French and English.
The Field Placement Program is governed by ABA Standard 304: Study Outside the Classroom and Berkeley Law Academic Rule 3 – the 295 Series – (c) Limitations.