The MUW IJM Campus Chapter is an organization on the campus of Mississippi University for Women that supports the work of the International Justice Mission by raising their voices, raising awareness in their school and community, and raising support. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to secure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpet
rators and to ensure that public justice systems - police, courts and laws - effectively protect the poor. Our Vision: To rescue thousands, protect millions and prove that justice for the poor is possible. ™
IJM's justice professionals work in their communities in 16 field offices in Asia, Africa and Latin America to secure tangible and sustainable protection of national laws through local court systems. 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 the global poor and others in need. 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 more than 500 lawyers, investigators, social workers and other staff - approximately 95% of whom are nationals of the countries in which they serve. Through individual casework, IJM confronts aggressive human violence: violence that strips widows and orphans of their property and livelihoods, 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. IJM's 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. IJM has been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times of India, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Foreign Affairs, Christianity Today, Forbes Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, “The Today Show,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Dateline NBC,” MSNBC, CNN, BBC World News and many other outlets. IJM seeks 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, IJM seeks to engender hope and transformation for those it serves and restore a witness of courage in places of oppressive violence. IJM helps victims of oppression regardless of their religion, ethnicity, or gender.
