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What We Do
How we work to stop atrocity crimes
People everywhere long to live in freedom, safety, and security. They want respect for their fundamental human rights.
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Access to justice is the foundational right on which other rights depend – and such access depends on evidence.
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Throughout her career in international criminal justice, PEJ founder Cynthia Tai saw firsthand how most information about atrocities and war crimes collected by local actors had little or no evidentiary value in court. This is because it is often not collected or maintained in a manner that courts would admit.
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This is an avoidable tragedy. Human rights defenders collect evidence at great risk and with high expectations – but again and again, they are disappointed when justice remains elusive. Cynthia established PEJ to help them obtain it.
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Using hybrid teams of local and international experts, PEJ works to create accountability for, deter, and prevent atrocities such as mass rape, ethnic cleansing, religious persecution, and genocide. PEJ’s efforts empower local justice actors to create fair, responsive justice systems that protect individual freedoms.
Three-Step Solution
PEJ’s three-step approach creates cascading positive change that stops atrocities, assures survivors obtain redress, and builds strong, rights-protecting justice institutions.
1
Training
PEJ trains local actors, including local civil society, community, and religious leaders, empowering them to document crimes according to the highest evidentiary standards and safely and securely store evidence. This helps protect survivors and witnesses and ensures evidence can be used to pursue justice.
2
Mentoring
PEJ mentors local civil society, community and religious leaders. We help them identify and access the best regional, national, or international forums. We work with them to make sure they assemble strong cases that withstand scrutiny. Mentees, in turn, share knowledge within their own communities. This builds strong local networks that can seek and obtain accountability.
3
Direct Legal Action
When all other paths to justice are exhausted, PEJ acts. We investigate and file cases to make certain survivors obtain redress. We collaborate with local actors during this process to further mentor them and empower them to demand enforcement of their rights.
