What does it mean to “internationalize” an organization? I suggest that both the field of human rights work, and the organizations through which that work is implemented, are increasingly technical and (not just international) but explicitly transnational. In other words, the work they are doing is anticipated to transcend borders, not to simply apply in different locations.
Human rights organizations increasingly rely on legal apparatus to enforce rights. Some human rights advocates are concerned that this orientation will displace grassroots social movements, while others feel there is space within the field for the involvement of both volunteer-based, grassroots advocacy as well as trained professionals. Regardless of how we feel the field should look, the reality is that work within the sector increasingly includes professional expertise and technical solutions. This dovetails with an employment trend towards work relationships that are increasingly temporary, with short-term contracts prevailing over career-length organizational commitments. Finally, this portability of skills and organizational relationships combines with technology that facilitates the bridging of distance to result in a transnationally mobile workforce. In this workforce, individuals trade connections with organizations and places for connections with a professional identity and a set of technical skills.
As human rights groups become both more international (working across national borders) and transnational (blurring those borders), they are more likely to hire human rights professionals, with their own unique set of knowledge, training and values. This rise in professionalization involves career-length commitments to the field of human rights, which necessitate that human rights workers negotiate between their personal and professional needs more than ever before. This is accompanied by demonstrated findings that younger workers are less willing to sacrifice a personal life for their commitment to work. Questions about workforce health, work-life balance, and sustainability therefore come to the forefront of discussions.
