The opportunity I had to do an internship at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights was one of the most challenging and enriching experiences of my life, on a personal and professional level.

My interest in human rights began when I began to discuss the issues of gender identity and sexual identity in Bolivian literature during my final year of school. From that moment on, human rights were always an interest that was present in my life, but I kept it in the background, with the illusion of thinking it was an area in which I could one day specialize, but also understanding that the challenges to achieving it would not be few.

To come to court and realize that it was not the unattainable dream that I thought was very revealing to me; I feel that there is little to compare to working with people so passionately dedicated to the defense of human rights. The level of professionalism of all the people I met and the trajectory of all of them never ceased to impress me, as did their willingness to continue learning and teaching. All of them, interns and lawyers, reminded me every day of what the world should be, what it can become.

The challenge of working in the Court was not small: on my first day, I believed that having read the instruments of Public International Law and studied the functioning of the Inter-American System of Human Rights, I would be prepared. But there is a big difference between learning about human rights in books, classes, and documentaries and knowing the work of defenders in their own flesh. Doing the internship influenced my understanding of the difficulties faced by so many people in accessing justice in their countries, an overwhelming reality that would have seemed completely hopeless if it were not for me to see the tireless work of all the people who make up the Inter-American Court, who, to this day, is one of the most valuable I have ever known.