In 1994, Gary Haugen was a young lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice when he was sent to Rwanda to investigate the genocide. He spent months documenting mass graves, interviewing survivors, cataloguing evidence. What broke him wasn't the scale of the killing — it was the silence that had preceded it. People knew. Institutions knew. And the legal systems that should have intervened did nothing.
From Investigation to Action
Haugen came back to Washington with a question he couldn't shake: if the global justice system failed the most vulnerable, who would step into the gap? In 1997, he left government and founded International Justice Mission with a staff of five and a single conviction — that the legal systems already in place could be made to work for the poor, not just the powerful.
IJM's model was radically practical. They embedded lawyers, investigators, and social workers in countries where exploitation was endemic. They partnered with local police and prosecutors. They brought casework — actual cases, actual victims, actual perpetrators — through existing legal systems.
The Numbers Tell a Story
By 2024, IJM had rescued more than 100,000 people from trafficking, forced labour, and violent oppression across more than 30 countries. Their data showed something remarkable: in communities where IJM had sustained operations for five years or more, the prevalence of trafficking dropped by an average of 75 percent. The legal systems didn't need to be replaced. They needed to be held accountable.
What This Means for You
Haugen didn't start a charity. He started a justice system repair operation. The lesson isn't that you need to go to Rwanda — it's that justice is structural, not just personal. Somewhere near you, a legal system is failing someone. The question is who shows up.