Human rights litigation is a growing international field and presents investigators with rigorous challenges. Often involving emotional and tragic circumstances, investigators find themselves working across international borders, languages, and cultures in order to collect evidence that attorneys can use in a courtroom.

In recent years, PII has worked with attorneys on some of the most groundbreaking litigation in the field. PII is the lead investigator for attorneys representing Iraqis tortured at the Abu Ghraib prison. In this case, Iraqis have sued two American defense contractors who took part in prison operations. PII is working with these same attorneys to investigate allegations against the U.S. government contractor, Blackwater, regarding the shootings of innocent civilians in Iraq. Read more about this on NPR here.

Previously, Amnesty International turned to PII to conduct a sensitive investigation involving allegations that a Guatemalan human rights worker was abducted and threatened by Guatemalan military police while in United States. In addition, Keith Rohman, PII’s president, was an international monitor for the hearings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and surveyed the work of the TRC’s investigative unit for a chapter in a book about the TRC. Experienced at working with interpreters, PII is available to assist with human rights cases wherever such abuses may have occurred.