Independent Investigators
Some of the cases the IAJ investigates involve complainants who are deceased, incapacitated, or unable to communicate fully what happened to them. Others involve institutional conduct whose facts are actively concealed — records destroyed, witnesses intimidated, proceedings sealed. Independent investigators with high standards of conduct and the skills to lawfully pursue concealed facts fill a function that the IAJ cannot perform through document review alone.
How This Role Serves the IAJ's Shadow NHRI Function
The Istanbul Protocol requires that investigations of torture and CIDT be conducted independently of the institutions whose conduct is being assessed. That independence requirement is structural — it means the investigating body must have its own fact-finding capacity, not dependent on the cooperation of the authorities under investigation. For a state-established NHRI, that capacity comes from statutory investigative powers: the authority to compel testimony, access records, and enter institutions. The IAJ, as a civil society body, cannot compel. But it can investigate through lawful means available to any person or organization: public record requests, court record review, witness interviews conducted with consent, documentary research, and the systematic assembly of facts from multiple sources.
Independent investigators are the IAJ's capacity to pursue facts that complainants cannot obtain and that courts do not produce. In cases involving deceased persons — persons who died in circumstances connected to judicial or administrative proceedings, whose cases are reported by family members or discovered in court records — investigators provide the fact-finding that no one else will do. In cases where complainants allege that records have been altered or destroyed, investigators provide the verification capacity. In cases where witnesses have information relevant to IAJ investigations but have not come forward, investigators conduct the outreach.
The IAJ is also developing the function of third-party case documentation: systematic fact-finding into cases identified through court records, news reports, and legal databases, without a complainant initiating the process. This function — investigating patterns of official conduct proactively rather than reactively — is specifically what Paris Principles NHRIs are empowered to do and what no US domestic institution currently performs for judicial conduct.
Your Contribution to Standards Evolution and Quality Assurance
Every volunteer in this role contributes directly to the on-going evolution, improvement, and quality assurance of the standards governing the Independent Investigators track — and, as applicable to your scope of work, to every other IAJ standard you touch. The IAJ's methodological frameworks, investigative protocols, tribunal rules, documentation templates, training modules, and published standards are living documents. Volunteers test them, critique them, identify gaps and ambiguities, propose refinements, and in doing so advance the institution's methodological rigour. Contribution to standards development and quality assurance is an expected and welcomed part of every volunteer engagement with the IAJ — not an optional add-on.
What the IAJ Is Looking For
Investigative Experience
Background in investigative journalism, legal research, academic or social-science field research, private investigation, social work investigation, human rights documentation, or a related field that has developed systematic fact-finding skills. Applicants with a law enforcement background are considered case-by-case: policing institutions in the United States are themselves a frequent subject of human rights scrutiny, and the investigative habits, hierarchies, and presumptions instilled by law enforcement training can be in tension with the IAJ's independent, non-coercive, witness-centred methodology. A law enforcement background is neither a qualification nor a disqualification, but it requires honest reflection on which habits must be unlearned to investigate to Istanbul Protocol standards.
Ethical Standards
Absolute commitment to lawful, non-coercive, consent-based investigation methods. The IAJ's institutional credibility depends on the integrity of its investigative record. Investigators who use improper, pressuring, or deceptive methods contaminate the evidentiary value of everything they find. IAJ investigators operate to a standard deliberately stricter than, and structurally independent from, domestic law enforcement practice — including on matters of consent, confidentiality, power asymmetry, and the treatment of witnesses and subjects.
Documentation Discipline
Ability to document the chain of custody of information — where facts came from, how they were obtained, what was done with them. Investigative findings that cannot be traced to their sources are unusable in IAJ findings and UN submissions.
Confidentiality
Capacity to handle sensitive personal information about complainants, witnesses, and subjects with strict confidentiality. Investigators have access to information that, if disclosed, could harm the individuals whose cases they are investigating.
Independent Judgment
Ability to assess the credibility and reliability of sources, identify inconsistencies in accounts, and follow the evidence to its conclusion — including when that conclusion contradicts the complainant's account or the IAJ's working hypothesis.
What You Will Do
- › Conduct lawful fact-finding into cases where complainants are deceased, incapacitated, or unable to provide complete accounts of what occurred
- › Review court records, public filings, and available documentation in cases identified through the IAJ's third-party case identification process
- › Conduct voluntary witness interviews with individuals who have information relevant to IAJ investigations
- › Verify, corroborate, or contest factual claims made by complainants through independent documentary research
- › Investigate cases where complainants allege that records have been altered, destroyed, or made inaccessible
- › Document investigative findings in structured formats compliant with the IAJ's evidence standards and the Istanbul Protocol's documentation requirements
- › Identify additional cases for IAJ investigation through systematic review of court records, legal databases, and news sources
Credentials & Background
Background in investigative journalism, legal research, academic or social-science field research, private investigation, social work investigation, human rights documentation, or equivalent experience that has produced systematic fact-finding skills. No formal degree requirement, but demonstrated investigative experience is essential. Investigators must be able to produce a record of their work that would withstand scrutiny in international treaty body proceedings. Applicants with a law enforcement background are considered on a case-by-case basis. U.S. law enforcement institutions are themselves a frequent subject of human rights scrutiny, and the training, habits, and institutional culture of policing can be in tension with the IAJ's independent, non-coercive, witness-centred, Istanbul Protocol-compliant methodology. A law enforcement background is not treated as an automatic qualification; former officers and investigators are welcome to apply if they can demonstrate independence from their former institutional culture and a willingness to investigate to a standard deliberately stricter than domestic policing practice. Current government employment in any investigative or law enforcement role presents structural independence concerns that must be disclosed and discussed at application.
Apply for This Role
Applications are reviewed by IAJ staff and responded to individually. In your application, reference this role and describe how your background prepares you to contribute to the IAJ's function as a shadow NHRI.