Piers Pigou is an independent consultant who has lived and worked in South Africa since 1992 for a range of organisations. His work focused on the documentation and remedy of human rights violations, in particular issues of torture, assassination and political violence. He worked with several non-governmental organisations, as well as the South African and East Timorese truth commissions in their investigation units. He has also worked on transitional justice issues in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Northern Ireland, Canada, Lebanon, and Cyprus among others.

Between 2011 and 2024, Piers worked at the International Crisis Group as Project Director for Southern Africa and subsequently as senior consultant. He was also an adviser to the Elders and a part-time investigator for the International Truth and Justice Project focusing on violations perpetrated by Sri Lanka’s security and political establishment. In 2020, Piers also joined the team from Armed Conflict Location and Events Data (ACLED’s) that produces weekly and monthly incident reports and analysis about the insurrection in northern Mozambique. Between 2023 and 2025, Piers was the Southern Africa Programme Head at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa.