About IJM

International Justice Mission's justice professionals work to free the victims of modern slavery in their communities in 12 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to secure tangible and sustainable protection of national laws through local court systems.

IJM Collaborative Casework

IJM investigators, lawyers and social workers intervene in individual cases of abuse in partnership with state and local authorities to ensure proper support for the victim and appropriate action against the perpetrator. Such collaboration is essential to obtain convictions against individual perpetrators and to bring meaning to local laws that are meaningless if not enforced.

History

Founded in 1997, IJM began operations in response to a massive need. Historically, humanitarian and missions organizations worked faithfully and courageously to bring healthcare, education, food and other vital services to those who needed them. But little had been done to actually restrain the oppressors who are a source of great harm to the vulnerable.

Concerned by this need, a group of lawyers, human rights professionals and public officials launched an extensive study of the injustices witnessed by overseas missionaries and relief and development workers. This study, surveying more than 65 organizations and representing 40,000 overseas workers, uncovered a nearly unanimous awareness of abuses of power by police and other authorities in the communities where they served. Without the resources or expertise to confront the abuse and to bring rescue to the victims, these overseas workers required the assistance of trained public justice professionals.

Gary Haugen, working as a lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice and as the United Nations' Investigator in Charge in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, founded International Justice Mission as a response to this massive need. Today, IJM has grown to nearly 300 professionals working in their own communities to fight injustice. The partnership with Redemptive Film Festival will allow for increased publicity for IJM and another source of funding for this important work.

IJM's Response Today

Through individual casework, IJM confronts aggressive human violence: violence that strips widows and orphans of their property and ivelihoods, violence that steals dignity and health from children trafficked into forced prostitution, violence that denies freedom and security to families trapped in slavery.

Violence against the poor is not driven by the overwhelming power of the perpetrators - it is driven by the vulnerability of the victims. This violence can be stopped when the power of the law is brought to bear on behalf of those who need it, and when people of good will contribute their financial and professional resources to insisting it stop.

Our casework model combats victimization and violence on the level of the individual, and supports functioning public justice systems where the poor urgently need an advocate.

Core Commitments

In the tradition of abolitionist William Wilberforce and transformational leaders like Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King, Jr., the partnership between Redemptive Film Festival and IJM is founded on the Christian call to justice articulated in the Bible (Isaiah 1:17): Seek justice, protect the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

We seek to restore to victims of oppression the things that God intends for them: their lives, their liberty, their dignity, the fruits of their labor. By defending and protecting individual human rights, We seek to engender hope and transformation for those it serves and restore a witness of courage in places of oppressive violence. We help victims of oppression regardless of their religion, ethnicity, or gender.

The Redemptive Film Festival will be donating 60% of all proceeds from the festival and 100% donated through the festival for "REDEMPTION."  To make a donation specifically for this cause, please use the link below.

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