Rights Lab, University of Nottingham

Thanks to the Nottinghamshire Police Chief Constable and Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for stopping by and talking to us about our research!

A Rights Lab, University of Nottingham research project and wider programme led by Professor Doreen Boyd (Geography) have been shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Research Project of the Year, in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences category. Dubbed “the Oscars of higher education”, the awards this year celebrate how institutions have continued to “transform lives for the better”. The winners will be announced on 28 November at a ceremony in Birmingham’s International Convention Centre. Professor Boyd and her Rights Lab team are shortlisted for "Slavery from Space: Using Satellites for Human Rights and Sustainable Development." The named members are -Dr Bethany Jackson -Dr Edgar Rodríguez-Huerta -Albert Nyarko-Agyei -Dr Renoy Girindran, PhD(UK) -Cristina V. -Laoise Ni Bhriain -Samuel Valman -Professor Giles Foody -Professor Zoe Trodd -Professor Todd Landman The shortlisting notes that, using Earth Observation (EO), Professor Doreen Boyd and her team have detected and analysed exploitation at scales never before attempted, in multiple countries and sectors, with impacts on national and intergovernmental policy, and leading to the liberation of thousands of people. Since 2022-23, funded by the UK Government’s Modern Slavery Innovation Fund, they have focused on exploitation in India’s brick kilns - a vast, under- regulated sector that is rarely assessed for environmental impact and exploitation scale. This Social Science project uses EO via remote-sensing satellites to map the sector’s environmental and labour violations, and then provides robust data to support: -Strengthened capability to disrupt and prosecute -Improved victim identification and liberation -Reduced vulnerability to victimisation -Improved evidence on what works ready for scale-up across surrounding countries We look forward to the ceremony and congratulate all of the other candidates!

Last week we were fortunate to host the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery Professor Tomoya Obokata. We spoke to him about his important fact-finding work & shared research findings. He also joined us for a fireside chat with our Associate Director Katarina Schwarz, co-hosted by the University of Nottingham's Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) and attended by colleagues and students alike. Thank you for visiting, we look forward to future collaborations!

  Join us on Wed November 6 2024, at 16.30 GMT, to hear Jean Allain, Professor of International Law at Monash University, and Leverhulme Visiting Professor at Nottingham Rights Lab, reveal what went on behind the scenes at the League of Nations in the 1920s. https://lnkd.in/e_ssPCWV His talk, 'A Struggle for the Soul of Anti-Trafficking at the League of Nations', lays out the internal politics of the League as it strove to capture the schema of the anti-trafficking network, and then change its very nature, as it wrestled to take the 'white slave traffic' framework away from France. Professor Allain has been an Extraordinary Professor with the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa, since 2008, and from 2015-2019 he was the Special Adviser to Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest international human rights organisation. To join us in person or online sign up at: https://lnkd.in/e_ssPCWV

We're proud to have worked with the Government of Canada in the last few years to support PSPC in managing human trafficking, forced Labour and child labour awareness, risk management and supplier engagement!

Recently, Rights Lab Research Fellow Lauren Eglen got to attend Survivor Alliance's Global Congress in Nairobi: "It was wonderful to connect with existing colleagues and make new connections at Survivor Alliance’s first in-person Global Congress. The Congress brought together survivors and allies from around the world in collaboration to discuss and reflect on how to build an intersectional, inclusive and trauma-informed movement led by those with lived experience. The theme of the conference was ‘The Power of the Collective’ and it was great to hear about the different ways ally organisations and survivors have worked together against trafficking and talk about how we can shift power to ensure survivors’ voices are centred in our efforts."

Fantastic day at Binghamton University discussing the work of the Rights Lab, University of Nottingham and the use of quantitative approaches with political scientists, economists, computer scientists, and data scientists.

The House of Lords has just released their latest report on modern slavery, with evidence from Rights Lab, University of Nottingham included. We are pleased to see the adoption of our recommendation to create a modern slavery data warehouse to improve cross-agency data sharing, as well as the Committee's support for our calls to strengthen the Act's TISC provisions, establish a Single Enforcement Body and bolster the role of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner.' https://lnkd.in/eY9UPYRu.

Exciting news from Todd Landman, Doreen Boyd, James Goulding, and Zoe Trodd: Honoured to share our chapter in Collaborative Intelligence on 'Seeing the Unseen World: Modern Slavery, Machine Learning, and AI.' In this chapter, we explore how AI and machine learning are being used to combat modern slavery, offering hope in addressing one of the most pressing human rights challenges today. #AI #HumanRights #TechForGood #MITPress". You can pre-order the book here: https://lnkd.in/gcV45aXs Mira Lane, Dr. Arathi Sethumadhavan, The MIT Press

Last chance at a fellowship with the Rights Lab! Work with Doreen Boyd and Todd Landman in geospatial data science for social sustainability research! Applications close 31 October, apply now!