Research Society of International Law (RSIL)

Section 1: Basic Information

RSIL is a donor-funded research institute that has been working in Pakistan since 1990. Its offices are in Islamabad and Lahore. It is a think tank that works in the following four areas.

Conflict Law Center (CLC)
Climate Change Initiative
Criminal Justice
Law and Data

The institute’s work includes research work, podcasts, webinars, policy briefs, holding discussions, and writing papers and blogs relating to the four areas mentioned above. RSIL is also running an online forum, ‘Diplomacy, Law, and Policy (DLP)’ in partnership with the ‘International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)’. The forum seeks to address some of the key questions facing the world today in the complementary and interdependent fields of law, policy and diplomacy. The content on this forum is the sole responsibility of RSIL.

Section 2: Structure of the Institute

RSIL is a small institute with around 25 associates and directors combined. Five of these employees work from the Islamabad office. Except for 2 associates all the associates are law graduates. There is no Human Resource department at RSIL but the institute is working on its HR policy. Moreover, RSIL uses Ahmer Bilal Soofi & Co.’s (a law firm) accounts department for its accounts. The details of the hierarchy along with the pay scale, per month in PKR, are provided in the following table.

Junior Associate	40,000
Research Associate	60,000
Senior Research Associate	100,000 to 120,000
Research Fellow	150,000 to 180,000
Senior Research Fellow	200,000 to 220,000
Deputy Director	Not disclosed
Director	Not disclosed

Section 3: Hiring Mechanism

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) fellowship: RSIL offers a 6-month long student fellowship. After the initial application, the shortlisted candidates are offered the fellowship based on their interview. The institute prefers to offer the fellowship to currently enrolled law students over law graduates. The fellows are paid a monthly stipend of 15,000 PKR. This fellowship helps the students with their writing skills, gives them the opportunity to publish their work and increases their chances of securing admission to grad school.

Internship: The institute offers summer internships and rolling basis internships all year long. The internships are generally 2 weeks long but can be extended if the intern performs well. The vacancies are advertised through their social media platforms and are unpaid. If an intern contributes to DLP work, then he/she will be compensated for that work only. The interns are mostly required to do research work, however, if an intern show exceptional performance they may be asked to write blogs and articles.

Associate: Hiring for the associates is done on a need basis only. Similar to the internships, the vacancies are advertised on social media platforms. Generally, a candidate is required to go through a two-step interview process, but if someone has previously worked/interned with the institute, one interview might be sufficient. There are no defined annual increments or bonuses. The associates may receive an occasional performance-based bonus. Promotion to a senior position depends on the time that an associate has spent at the institute, performance and independently leading a project.