Out of the Shadows: Trans-disciplinary Research on Modern Slavery

This article argues that the phenomenon of modern slavery is underdeveloped in the international law of human rights, but is akin to many other topics in human rights that have been increasingly the focus of transdisciplinary research. In outlining the research programme of the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham, the article discusses the contested nature of modern slavery as a concept, locates it in international human rights and other international law, and then outlines several ways in which the Rights Lab is researching modern slavery with a view to contributing to its abolition by 2030. The Rights Lab work discussed here includes cross-national comparative statistical analysis, the application of geospatial and remote sensing techniques to estimate potential sites of slavery across different sectors, and techniques for monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessments of anti-slavery interventions.