Freedom of Expression
Susan Schneider
As a legal intern at the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression in the summer of 2004, I divided my time between case analysis and legal research. I spent part of the summer analyzing petitions alleging freedom of expression violations from the Americas, and for one of the cases, I drafted a report that will go to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in its determination of whether the case should be admitted for consideration. The rest of my time was devoted to research into the legal treatment of hate speech around the world, a study will eventually be published in one of the Rapporteurship's annual reports.
I found the internship at the Office of the Special Rapporteur to be extremely rewarding. Not only did it provide a fantastic introduction to the field of international human rights law, and more specifically, to how the Inter-American system protects human rights, but the work itself was challenging and fascinating. I had the chance to analyze real cases in both English and in Spanish and to witness how they are handled at the regional level, and my work gave me the opportunity to work with and learn from human rights lawyers from throughout the Americas. As a result, my interest in this area of the law has deepened significantly.
Susan Schneider
George Washington Law School