Dear Friends,

We have some exciting progress to share with you!

We’re deeply grateful for the support — financial, emotional, and professional — that has made this progress possible. Together, we are ensuring that victims of atrocities receive justice, no matter where they live.

Updates from Around the World

• Kenya
• North Korea
• Ukraine
• The United Nations

Our Partners

• Funders and Program Partners
• Our Incredible Team
• YOU

Updates from Around the World

Since June 2021, PJI has been supporting the investigation and prosecution of the first crimes against humanity case to be brought in Kenyan National Courts, the “Baby Pendo” case.

BIG NEWS: The Kenyan High Court has scheduled a plea hearing for the Baby Pendo case on the fifth of November — just weeks away!

There are 12 police officers who have been accused of torture, sexual violence, and killing as crimes against humanity. It is PJI’s hope that all 12 will be arraigned at the November hearing so that the case can move forward, giving the victims and survivors long awaited access to justice at home.

Background: in collaboration with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and as an Implementing Partner of UN Women and OHCHR, PJI has provided extensive training, accompaniment, and partnership building in Nairobi, travelling to Kenya to conduct in-depth, in-person training and mentorship on numerous occasions (including twice this year), while also maintaining robust engagement with our local partners through remote sessions in the interim.

As a result of this sustained engagement in Kenya, local justice actors have also asked PJI to advise them about potential crimes against humanity committed by the police during the ongoing political demonstrations that erupted across the country in June 2024.   

We’re grateful and honoured to have been part of the effort to move the Baby Pendo case forward, and the ongoing work to build frameworks for continuing justice in Kenya.  

Learn more here.

Major Progress!

In 2024, the PJI team continued our long-standing work with the Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (Citizens Alliance). Together, we have analysed years of evidence collected by Citizens Alliance, filling in the gaps, and building a file from which one or more crimes against humanity cases could be built against individual perpetrators from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).  

After nearly three years of close collaboration, our colleagues at Citizens Alliance are now able to collect and analyse evidence to a gold standard. As a result, they hold evidence that could be admissible in jurisdictions around the world. With this evidence, PJI hopes there will soon be opportunities for justice for the victims of crimes against humanity committed in North Korea.   

Learn more here.

PJI is helping to ensure accountability for international crimes and gross human rights abuses committed in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Between February 2023 and March 2024, PJI partnered with the Global Initiative for Justice, Truth & Reconciliation (GIJTR). The GIJTR is a consortium of nine global organisations that works alongside communities to amplify the voices of survivors and inspire collective action in countries struggling to confront human rights violations.  

At the invitation of GIJTR, PJI has worked to empower two key organisations — Truth Hounds and the International Partnership for Human Rights  — in their efforts to investigate, document, and pursue accountability for atrocities being committed in Ukraine, including sexual violence, torture, and crimes affecting children.   

Participant documenters were intensely engaged in every PJI training session; they brought an urgency and enthusiasm that propelled us through the days. When this project concluded, Ukrainian partners expressed gratitude and noted how empowered they felt as a result of the support​​ they received from PJI and our GIJTR colleagues​.   

Although the GIJTR project has come to a close, PJI continues to support our colleagues in their important documentation work in Ukraine, in partnership with the International Partnership for Human Rights.

Learn more here.

The Collaboration Needed for Justice.

To make justice a reality for victims, survivors, and witnesses, we need a shared vision for the protection of their information, the preservation of their rights, and what it means to support their access to justice.  

Sometimes this lack of collective vision can cause significant roadblocks. As an example, UN investigative bodies are often the only hope that victims have for truth and justice. However, the civil society organisations who need to engage those UN bodies can be reluctant to turn over their evidence because the protection of victim information isn’t guaranteed. There is no uniform agreement on how to handle the information. 

In 2024, to address this need for a shared agreement, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) convened two international roundtables — one in New York and one in Geneva — and PJI was a key partner for both meetings.  

We’re excited to announce that, in close collaboration with our partners at the ITJP, PJI led the drafting of an international cooperation and information-sharing protocol between civil society and UN mandated investigations!  

This simple act of administrative collaboration has the potential to help more victims around the world speak their truth, achieve justice, and receive redress.

PJI at the International Prosecutors Conference.

The March 2024 international prosecutors conference highlighted four success stories relating to domestic prosecution of sexual violence as an international crime. Two of the cases highlighted were cases PJI supported (one in Guatemala and one in Kenya), in partnership with UN Women and UN Human Rights! 

The conference was convened by the Special Representative for the Secretary General For Sexual Violence In Conflict’s Team Of Experts. PJI was honoured to sit on the advisory committee for the conference and to assist with conference facilitation.

Our Partners

Funders and Program Partners

We are so grateful to all of the partners, institutions, and individuals who made this work possible. You are lifting up those who seek justice in their communities, and giving survivors hope that they will — at last — have justice at home. Thank you! 

Our work is further supported by generous funding from our devoted individual donors, who walk the path of justice with us every step of the way.  Thank you!

Our Incredible Team!

PJI is deeply grateful for the ​incredible team members who are working tirelessly around the world to carry out the day-to-day realities of this work. Thank ​you all! 

PJI would like to offer a special welcome to our new Operations and Finance Manager, Aubrey Mataka, and to our two newest Legal Fellows, Valiant Jacob and Hailey York!

We warmly thank our current Legal Fellow, Dianne Lake, whose fellowship comes to an end in November.

If you’re interested in joining our team, PJI has begun accepting applications for our 2025 summer legal interns and 2025/2026 legal fellows. Learn more here.

YOU

Thank you for being allies, supporters, and invaluable members of the PJI family. With you by our side, we are rekindling hope for survivors around the world.

Many thanks,