Records and Archives Internship

UNHCR’s operations in Asia and the Pacific encompass two of the world’s largest forced displacement crises, involving large numbers of children without access to quality education, deep poverty, significant statelessness and an ever-present threat of gender-based violence. Access to territory, asylum, and protection remain challenges across the region, where only 20 of the 45 countries and territories have acceded to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and only three States are party to both statelessness conventions. The total number of refugees, people in refugee-like situations, stateless persons, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), returnees (both refugees and IDPs) and others of concern to UNHCR in Asia and the Pacific by mid-2023 stood at 14.3 million.

UNHCR Thailand is a Multi-Country Operation covering Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Thailand is neither party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol nor to the Statelessness Conventions; there is no formal legal framework for the protection of refugees and asylum seekers. However, Thailand hosts about 91,000 refugees from Myanmar at the border, with about 5,000 refugees and asylum seekers living in urban areas and 554, 000 stateless persons. UNHCR Multi-Country Operation in Thailand main challenge is to maintain and expand the asylum and protection space in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam while seeking durable solutions. 

Established in 1996, the Records and Archives Section 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. 

UNHCR Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific Office (RBAP) in Bangkok, Thailand and UNHCR Thailand are looking for a Record and Archives Intern. This internship is a unique opportunity to gain experience in information management within an international organization. The intern will be based in UNHCR RBAP Office in Bangkok and directly report to the Archivist, Records and Archives Section, which sits within the Department of External Relations (DER), while the intern is also expected to partially provide records management support to UNHCR Thailand office in Bangkok.

We are seeking an individual with an eye for detail, a passion for history, and an interest in a career in the archives sector to complete an internship within the UNHCR Records and Archives Section.  The intern will process a large special collection of mainly photographs that document UNHCR Thailand’s history in accordance with accepted standards and practices. The primary objective is to prepare (“pre-process”) the collection for its eventual professional digitization. With the nature of its work, this internship is not suitable for a remote-working arrangement.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Review, arrange and describe collection
• Identify and remove duplicates
• Identify conservation or preservation issues
• Handle physical materials carefully to prevent damaging the fragile historical material
• Compile statistics and reports about the materials, and
• Perform any other tasks as assigned by supervisor, including supporting other units as requested.

Essential minimum qualifications and professional experience required

In order to be considered for an internship, candidates must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• The candidate must be a recent graduate (those persons who completed their studies within one year of applying) or current student in a graduate/undergraduate school programme from a university or higher education facility accredited by UNESCO. The candidate must have completed at least two years of undergraduate studies in a field of Records and Archives Management, Information Management, History or relevant of interest to the work of the Organization.
• Excellent knowledge of English and Thai (reading and writing).