Deadline for Applications
October 13, 2025
Hardship Level (not applicable for home-based)
H (no hardship)
Family Type (not applicable for home-based)
Family
Staff Member / Affiliate Type
Internship
2025-10-15
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering a full-time internship with the Records and Archives Section of the Global Data Service at UNHCR Geneva, Switzerland.
Established in December 1950, UNHCR is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for asylum seekers, refugees, returnees, internally displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. UNHCR currently operates in over 130 countries, using its long expertise to protect and care for millions.
Title: Records and Archives Intern
Duty Station: Geneva, Switzerland
Duration: 2.5 months, with possibility of extension up to 8 months
Contract Type: Internship (Full time*)
Closing date for application:
Earliest Hire Date: 15 October 2025
Target End date: 31 December 2025
*For this internship a 50% part-time engagement can be discussed, if preferred by the selected candidate. In this instance the internship could be extended to a maximum of up to 12 months.
Organizational context
Established in 1996, the Records and Archives of UNHCR manages UNHCR records during their life cycle in paper and digital format. The archives contain information from the founding of the organization in 1950 to the present day. They also hold several pre-UNHCR collections, which provide valuable background to the development of protection work.
The position
The internship will be within the Research and Access Team of UNHCR’s Records and Archives, which sits within the Global Data Service (GDS). The archives team receives, manages, preserves and makes UNHCR’s archives holdings accessible to UNHCR staff members globally and also to the general public. This internship is a unique opportunity to gain experience in information management within an international organization.
We are seeking an individual with an eye for detail, a passion for research and an interest in a career in the archives sector to complete an internship within the UNHCR Records and Archives.
The Research and Access Team works to research and answer enquiries using the written history and institutional memory of UNHCR, selects and prepares material for long-term preservation and manages a busy reading room for welcoming visiting researchers to UNHCR’s HQ, as well as assisting UNHCR’s operations to access UNHCR’s knowledge bases for their day-to-day work.
You will work closely with the Archivists to document collections of records, conduct pieces of research and answer enquiries, digitize records on demand and undertake conservation and preservation tasks.
Duties and responsibilities
•Create finding aids for unlisted collections
•Assist in Preservation Projects
•Undertake research tasks
•Assist in the Records Management tasks
•Support the Digital Preservation programme
•Assist in external engagement events, web/social media content and publications
•Other duties (compilation of statistics, research, supervising researchers, retrieving and re-shelving files, administrative tasks, outreach tasks)
Minimum qualifications required
In order to be considered for an internship, candidates must meet the following eligibility criteria:
•Be either a recent graduate (having completed their studies within two years of applying) or a current student in a
graduate/undergraduate school programme from a university or higher education facility accredited by IAU/UNESCO; and
•Have completed at least two years of undergraduate studies in a field relevant or of interest to the work of UNHCR.
•not have exhausted the maximum cumulative internship period with UNHCR, including any prior internships (8 months for full-time and 12 months for part-time)
NOTE: An individual who bears the relationship of parent, child or sibling or step-parent, step-child or step-sibling to a current UNHCR staff member or affiliate is not eligible for an internship.
Desirable qualifications and skills
•First Required Language is English at B2 level
•Recent graduate or current student in a
graduate/undergraduate school programme from a university or higher education facility in
o Records and archives management;
o Information management;
o History or related discipline;
Working knowledge of English is essential for this position, with an understanding of other languages being desirable, in particular French, German and/or Spanish.
Conditions
It is a full-time role with working hours starting from 8.30 am to 5.00 pm, Monday to Friday (40 hours per week). The successful candidate will be assigned to support the team in Geneva, Switzerland. For this internship a 50% part-time engagement can be discussed, if preferred by the selected candidate. In this instance, the internship could be extended to a maximum of up to 12 months.
Allowance: Interns who do not receive financial support from an outside party will receive an allowance to partially help to cover the cost of food, local transportation and living expenses.
Travel: Unless provided or paid by external sponsoring entities, UNHCR reimburse interns engaged from a location outside of the country of the duty station for the ticket costs of their outward and return travel to/from the duty station by the most economical route available on economy class, irrespective of the duration of the journey. Reimbursement shall be limited to the authorized outward and return travel between the intern’s country of residence and the intern’s duty station, or actual route of travel, whichever is lower.
Before travel is undertaken, the selected intern must obtain authorization in writing from the hiring office. Such authorization must include the approved cost of the ticket.
Internships normally last two to six months with the possibility of extension up to eight months for full-time internships and twelve months for part-time internships.
Obligations
Acquiring and renewing current visas, residence permits including all associated costs, obtaining medical certification and compliance with taxation requirements (if applicable), are the responsibility of the intern.
The selected candidate will need to provide UNHCR with a proof of health insurance coverage applicable to the assigned internship location and a certificate of good health from a qualified medical practitioner certifying their fitness for work and travel. In the event the selected candidate is not able to produce the required certificates, they will not be admitted to the Internship Programme.
---------------------------------If you are a person with a disability and you expect you may face challenges during the recruitment process, you can indicate it in your application form.
There are options to select any health conditions you may have and outline any necessary adjustments related to disabilities during the recruitment phases. Providing this information is optional. It will be treated as strictly confidential and used only for the purpose of finding out how to better assist you during the recruitment process.
Adjustments for candidates with disabilities will be provided as best as possible and as needed upon request.
All candidates will be assessed based on meeting the requirements for each vacancy in relation to experience, skills, and education.
The UNHCR workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages and opinions. UNHCR seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. Applications are encouraged from all qualified candidates without distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
UNHCR does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, meeting, travelling, processing or training.
We welcome applications from candidates with a refugee or stateless background.
Standard Job Description
Required Languages
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,
Desired Languages
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Additional Qualifications
Skills
Education
Certifications
Other information
This position doesn't require a functional clearance
Remote
No