In 1987 a group of concerned people and organizations including Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights and National Immigrant Justice Center, Bureau of Refugee and Immigrant Services of the Illinois Department of Human Services, Amnesty International, philanthropist Peter Kovler, psychologists of the Illinois Psychological Association, physicians of John Stroger, Jr. Hospital, and survivors who had experienced torture before fleeing to the United States, established the Marjorie Kovler Center, a program of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights.