The Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against Humanity was created by the President of Estonia on October 2nd, 1998. The investigation of crimes against the Estonian citizens or on the territory of the Republic of Estonia during the occupation of the Soviet Union and the Nazi Germany is one the main objective of the Commission's work. It is the aim of the Commission to establish the attendant circumstances of crimes against humanity, and also the relevant historical background.

The Commission is not and does not intend to act as a judicial or prosecutorial body. Its members are not judges. The Commission works in the form of meetings during which problems occurring in the course of investigation work are discussed and the completed research papers are analyzed. At the periods between the meetings the Commission's work is co-ordinated by the Executive Secretary who hires researchers and organizes the translation of research papers. The researchers are Estonian historians who are going through all the available records in Estonian archives and in the accessible archives of other countries, as well as the relevant published literature. Two separate research groups collect documents and interrogate witnesses regarding respectively the period of the Soviet (1940-1941 and 1944-1991) and German occupation (1941-1944).

Another body dealing with crimes generated by the occupants is the State Commission for the Repression of Occupant Regimes at the Estonian Parliament. The Commission deals with the harm that has been caused to the Estonian population during the Soviet and German occupations. The Commission has produced and has been up-dating a central registrar of people who were repressed and sentenced by the occupant regimes. It is also known from its publishing activities.