Job offers
Student trainee to support Children's Rights Research project (3hrs week/unpaid)
As part of our four year research project on the development rights of children who are living in unrecognized states (see www.childrensrightsresearch.com), we are looking for a student trainee to assist management with organisational and practical tasks. The position requires 3hrs of work per week, for one academic year.
Start date: 1 July 2024 (with basically no work over the summer).
PLEASE NOTE: Applicants don't need to be Maastricht University students, but if possible, there's a preference for being able to meet in person.
What will you do?
As a student intern, you will assist management of the Children's Rights Research by executing several tasks. While specific tasks may differ per week on an as-needed basis, here are the two main tasks:
- Collecting and editing contributions to the website (blogs, vlogs)
- Promote our contributions and manage our social media channels
What do you get?
Although unfortunately the position is unpaid, the position enables you to engage closely with this research group, and opportunities for learning are manifold. You will regularly be invited to events and other activities going on in this research group (this will not be part of your working hours, but you get a front row seat to anything happening in the group, with no obligations). At the moment it is still difficult to predict what this would look like exactly, since we are currently applying for funding for two new projects. Examples from the past include organising and attending interesting events (a conference in northern Cyprus, lectures at UM, online conference with children from different countries), organising and attending meetings with children’s rights researchers from different countries, reading and editing book chapters.
Requirements
We are looking for a candidate with the following qualifications:
- Strong interest in children's rights
- Excellent level of English
- Experienced in writing popular scientific / accessible text
- Strong organisational skills
- Is a student at Maastricht University
- Is able to combine 3-hours/week voluntary work with their studies
How to apply
To apply, please send your CV, a short motivation (max 1 A4), and an example of a popular scientific text written by you (e.g. a blog) to
*It is no longer possible to apply for this position*
As part of our four year research project on the development rights of children who are living in unrecognized states (see www.childrensrightsresearch.com), we are looking for a student assistant to assist management with organisational and practical tasks. The position requires 8hrs of work per week, for a period of 8 months.
Start date: 1 November 2023.
PLEASE NOTE: Applicants need to be Maastricht University students!
What will you do?
As a student assistant, you will assist management of the Children's Rights Research by executing several tasks. While specific tasks may differ per week on an as-needed basis, here are the two main tasks:
- Collecting and editing contributions to the website (blogs, vlogs, newsletter)
- Managing the call for funding for the Children's Rights Research Fund (see this webpage: similar calls are published every 6 monts)
Requirements
We are looking for a candidate with the following qualifications:
- Affinity with children's rights
- Excellent level of English
- Experienced in writing popular scientific / accessible text
- Strong organisational skills
- Is a student at Maastricht University
- Is able to combine a 8-hour work week with their studies
- The candidate is either a EU citizen, or has a EU residence permit + work permit.
Conditions of employment
You will be employed for 0.2 fte (8 hours per week) by Maastricht University, gross monthly salary between € 2.402,- and € 2.611,- for a full time position, depending on year of study and in conformity with CAO NU.
How to apply
To apply, please send your CV, a short motivation (max 1 A4), and an example of a popular scientific text written by you (e.g. a blog) to
*It is no longer possible to apply for this position*
As part of our four year research project on the development rights of children who are living in unrecognized states (see www.childrensrightsresearch.com), we are looking for a student assistant to assist management with organisational and practical tasks. The position requires 12hrs of work per week, for a period of 6 months. Start date: as soon as possible.
PLEASE NOTE: Applicants need to be Maastricht University students!
The overall project
Although the SDGs are supposed to apply to all children equally, one group of children have remained largely invisible to the international community, namely: children living in unrecognized states. Since the goal of the UN is to provide access to justice for all, and to build effective and inclusive institutions at all levels, we propose to do research on the main question: (How) can development rights of children living in areas of ongoing political conflict be better realized?
From research in law and development, we know that for laws (including development rights) to have an impact on society, they must first be embedded in local norms. However, researchers have not yet found a way to systematically acquire and process the relation between children’s development rights and the relevant local norms. Furthermore, there is no research currently available on what it means to say that children living in areas of political conflict have development rights.
To remedy this gap, the envisaged research will apply a three-pronged approach to answer our main question by:
- Conceptualizing what development rights actually entail for children living in unrecognized states from an international law perspective
- Developing a theoretical framework and methodology to study the different norms related to the protection/violation of children’s development rights in different socio-legal contexts
- Formulating - through field research and literature study – a deeper understanding of legal and non-legal normative mechanisms that protect/violate development rights of children living in three unrecognized states: the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Somaliland, Palestine.
What will you do?
As a student assistant, you will assist management of this project by supporting the project manager in organizing several tasks. While specific tasks may differ per week on an as-needed basis, these are some of the tasks that we have in mind:
- Supporting the peer-review process of the open access book publication we are currently working on: reminding authors of deadlines, contacting peer reviewers, sharing draft chapters with reviewers, reminding colleagues of deadlines, etc.
- Managing website, social media and newsletter content
- Managing the group of student volunteers involved in the West Bank case study
- Help with organizing travel arrangements (finding public transport options, housing options for visiting researcher, car rental)
Requirements
We are looking for a candidate with the following qualifications:
- Affinity with the research topic of the study
- Excellent level of English
- Strong organisational skills
- Is a student at Maastricht University
- Is able to combine a 12-hour work week with their studies
- The candidate is either a EU citizen, or has a EU residence permit + work permit.
Conditions of employment
You will be employed for 0.3 fte (12 hours per week) by Maastricht University, gross monthly salary between € 2.402,- and € 2.611,- for a full time position, depending on year of study and in conformity with CAO NU.
How to apply
To apply, please send your CV and a short motivation (max 1 A4) to
*It is no longer possible to apply for this position*
As part of our four year research project on the development rights of children who are living in unrecognised states (see www.childrensrightsresearch.com), we are looking for a research intern to help in the preparation and execution of research on children’s development rights in Palestine. It concerns a 5.5 month internship of 0.7fte. The candidate is expected to work with the main researcher (Dr. Marieke Hopman) in preparing the research trip, collecting data, and analysing this data. The candidate is invited to travel with the main researcher to the Occupied Palestinian territories, to collect data in the field. To this purpose, the candidate will receive a qualitative interview training.
The overall project
Although the SDGs are supposed to apply to all children equally, one group of children have remained largely invisible to the international community, namely: children living in unrecognized states. Since the goal of the UN is to provide access to justice for all, and to build effective and inclusive institutions at all levels, we propose to do research on the main question: (How) can development rights of children living in areas of ongoing political conflict be better realized?
From research in law and development, we know that for laws (including development rights) to have an impact on society, they must first be embedded in local norms. However, researchers have not yet found a way to systematically acquire and process the relation between children’s development rights and the relevant local norms. Furthermore, there is no research currently available on what it means to say that children living in areas of political conflict have development rights.
To remedy this gap, the envisaged research will apply a three-pronged approach to answer our main question by:
- Conceptualizing what development rights actually entail for children living in unrecognized states from an international law perspective
- Developing a theoretical framework and methodology to study the different norms related to the protection/violation of children’s development rights in different socio-legal contexts
- Formulating - through field research and literature study – a deeper understanding of legal and non-legal normative mechanisms that protect/violate development rights of children living in four unrecognized states: the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Somaliland, Palestine and Transnistria OR Abkhazia.
The case study
This case study will focus on the rights of children who are living in Palestine: the West Bank. In particular, we will focus on children who are living on the “front lines” of the conflict: those who live where the conflict is most active. For example, children living in Hebron. We will travel to these areas to learn from both Israeli and Palestinian children, what according to them are the main children’s rights issues. We are still developing the details of this case study and as an intern you will contribute to the preparing and setting up this case study.
What will you do?
As a research intern, first, you will support the main research (Dr. Hopman) in the preparation of the case study. This will include literature research and practical work, such as looking for flights, helping in preparing the ethics application, etc. Second, you will travel with Dr. Hopman to the West Bank. Depending on your preference and practical considerations, you may assist in the data collection in the Israeli and/or the Palestinian communities. To this purpose, you will receive a qualitative interview training. We will also train local researchers to continue the data collection after we leave. Upon return, you will assist in monitoring the local data collection and a (first) analysis of the research data.
In total you will spend 6 months on the project, of which the period in the West Bank (most likely 2-3 weeks) is fulltime. The field trip is planned to take place in June.
Requirements
We are looking for a candidate with the following qualifications:
- Currently pursuing a BA or MA degree in social sciences, LAW, psychology, humanities or another related discipline at Maastricht University.
- Great passion for contributing to the protection of children’s rights through research.
- Excellent level of English.
- Some basic knowledge of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is required.
- Experience with qualitative research data collection and analysis is not necessary, but would be a plus.
- Experience in doing research with children is not necessary, but would be a plus. General experience in working with children would also be a plus.
- Mastery of local language(s) is not necessary, but would be a plus.
Conditions of internship
The compensation will be either according to the UM regulations. These regulations have a standard pay of € 210/month for 0.7fte (28 hours per week). Costs for field research are covered by the project budget.
How to apply
To apply, please send your CV and a short motivation (max 2 A4) to