The UN’s Conduct and Discipline Service offers Legal Affairs Interns a front-row seat to this process. You will collaborate with experts in New York to create legal documents and assess conduct guidelines while helping UN operations and peacekeeping missions maintain their standards. This opportunity enables you to use your legal knowledge to protect the UN mission because it goes beyond being a scholarly task. Our team requires detail-oriented students who possess a strong sense of ethics to assist with our essential operations.
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Interns – Legal Affairs (Conduct and Discipline Service)
Job Opening ID: 271248
Job Network: –
Job Family: Legal Affairs
Category and Level: Internship, I-1
Duty Station: New York, USA
Department/Office: Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance / Office of Human Resources
Date Posted: 2 February 2026
Application Deadline: 26 February 2026
Work Location: New York (primarily in-person; remote/hybrid possible)
Expected Duration: 3–6 months (full-time, 35 hours/week)
Internship Terms: Unpaid
Organizational Context and Internship Opportunity
The United Nations maintains its core values while establishing accountability measures to monitor its staff who work throughout the world. The Conduct and Discipline Service (CDS) within the Administrative Law Division plays a critical role in implementing and enforcing the UN’s standards of conduct for all personnel—civilian and uniformed—worldwide. The CDS develops measures for preventing misconduct, which includes sexual exploitation and abuse cases, while they work together with peacekeeping missions and offices throughout the Secretariat.
We are looking for six dedicated Legal Affairs Interns who will join CDS in New York during the Spring, Summer, and Fall 2026 cycles. The internship provides an exceptional chance to attain practical work experience which combines international law with administrative policy and organizational ethics in a worldwide intergovernmental environment. You will work with supervision from a Conduct and Discipline Officer to assist important activities which protect UN integrity and enable its international operations.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
Interns will assist with a range of substantive tasks, which may include:
- Legal and Policy Support: The team helps prepare legal advice which requires assessing behavioral standards and disciplinary procedures while assessing current policies to create updated versions.
- Document Drafting: The team helps create legal documents which include official papers and internal communication materials and formal memos.
- Meeting and Conference Support: The team participates in meetings and conferences while they create notes for all discussions which they need to summarize later.
- Knowledge Management: The team helps implement information handling systems and knowledge sharing processes which exist within the Service.
- Communications and Outreach: The team helps maintain the Conduct and Discipline website while creating presentations and writing news articles and social media content.
Qualifications and Special Skills
Education:
Applicants must meet one of the following requirements at the time of application:
- Be enrolled in or have completed a graduate school program which requires a second university degree or its equivalent or a higher degree.
- Be enrolled in or have completed their last academic year of a first university degree program which requires at least a Bachelor’s degree.
Field of Study:
- A field of study closely related to the internship, which includes Law International Relations Public Administration Human Rights and related disciplines, serves as the required field.
Experience:
- No prior professional work experience is required. Relevant academic coursework and a demonstrated interest in the field are essential.
Technical Skills:
- The applicant needs to demonstrate their ability to use standard software applications which include MS Word and MS PowerPoint. The organization prefers candidates who can write news articles and social media posts.
Languages:
- The position requires candidates to demonstrate proficiency in both spoken and written English. The candidate needs to know French while knowledge of any other official UN language which includes Arabic Chinese Russian and Spanish will provide him with an advantage.
Logistical and Application Information
Application Requirements:
A completed online application via the UN careers portal is mandatory and must include:
- A Cover Note specifying:
- The title and date of your most recent degree and any degree in progress.
- Your expected graduation date.
- A list of your IT skills and proficiencies.
- You need to explain your qualifications for CDS along with your view of how the internship will help your professional development.
- Your available period in 2026 and preferred start/end dates.
- A fully completed Personal History Profile (PHP).
Internship Conditions:
- This internship does not provide any financial compensation. All costs for travel, visas, accommodation, insurance, and living expenses are the responsibility of the intern or their sponsoring institution.
- For in-person internships in the USA, non-U.S. citizens/permanent residents will typically need to obtain a G-4 visa for full-time work. Candidates who hold student visas such as F-1 and J-1 must complete their internships through part-time work.
- The internship requires full-time attendance at its New York location although remote work and part-time work will be allowed based on current situations and CDS requirements.
Selection Process:
- The hiring process requires all applicants to submit complete applications before their applications will be evaluated.
- The organization will only reach out to candidates who have been selected for further evaluation because they received too many applications.
- The United Nations recruitment process operates without any fees which are charged at any point throughout the entire process.
Students who study law or its related subjects and who want to work in international accountability and global organization rule of law should submit their applications before the deadline on 26 February 2026 to be considered for this important internship.
