Thursday, 16 May 2019
Experts from the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham will launch six new projects in their fight against modern slavery at an event at the Royal Society next week.
There are an estimated 40.3million people enslaved around the world today. A commitment to end slavery by 2030 is part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, but to achieve this goal there needs to be an evidence-based ‘roadmap’ for abolition.
The Rights Lab, which is the world’s largest group of modern slavery scholars, is helping to lead the fight against modern slavery and as part of their ongoing commitment to the anti-slavery movement, it will launch six new innovative projects to help build that roadmap, or what the Rights Lab calls a ‘Freedom Blueprint.’
The team will showcase their anti-slavery innovations on Monday 20 May at the Royal Society of Arts in London to partners, including the new UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Sara Thornton CBE QPM.
One of the projects being launched at the event includes an extension of the team’s work mapping slavery with geospatial techniques.
We estimate that one-third of all slavery is visible from space. Our machine-learning algorithms identify sites of slavery after being trained on the human-tagged examples. We are now bringing together multiple partners to deliver a Global Anti-Slavery Observatory: close-to-real time mapping of slavery sites via geospatial observation. Working with data providers, imagery analysts and AI experts, the Observatory will analyse satellite imagery and find and predict the locations of high-prevalence industries and hotspots.
The team will also be launching their new Voices Database: the world’s first largescale database of modern slave testimonies. The team can analyse patterns in these millions of words to understand trafficking routes, uncover reasons for slavery’s emergence across different sectors, identify vulnerabilities, and discover new anti-slavery solutions.
A third is a new Anti-Slavery Legislation Database, the world’s first comprehensive database of the domestic legislation and international obligations of all 193 UN Member States with regard to slavery and related forms of exploitation. The database will allow States to learn from global practice and comparative analyses in order to develop robust governance frameworks that respond to the changing dynamics of slavery.
A fourth project will work to deliver a Slavery-Free Cities Index. This builds on the team’s developing framework of the social determinants of slavery-free communities, setting them in context with a systemic view of the anti-slavery agenda that stretches from prevention through discovery to respite, recovery and sustainable resilience. Alongside practitioners and activists working at the front line, we will create a new index of city resilience to slavery, one that will share the components required to develop slavery-free communities in diverse social and economic contexts. By understanding the factors contributing to slavery-free communities, we can measure and compare resilience across a wide range of local settings, and so challenge and inspire communities to further action.
By launching these and other initiatives, some ready for adaptation and use, others at a pilot stage and in need of collaboration and investment, we are searching for research pathways to a slavery-free world.
Ending slavery will only happen if everyone —the anti-slavery community of survivors, policy-makers, civil society, researchers and business—works together towards a shared vision. We hope our Rights Lab research innovations can be a useful part of that joint vision: ending slavery in our lifetime and delivering the Freedom Dividend that comes with a slavery-free world.
To find out more about these projects, or about the event – please visit the Rights Lab website or you can download a copy of the research brochure here.
Story credits
More information is available from Professor Zoe Trodd in the Rights Lab, at the University of Nottingham at rightslab@nottingham.ac.uk ; or Charlotte Anscombe, Media Relations Manager for the Faculty of Social Science and Arts in the Press Office at The University of Nottingham, on +44 (0)115 74 84417, charlotte.anscombe@nottingham.ac.uk
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 32 in Europe and 16th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the second most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
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