On 31 January 2019, Dr Philippa Webb and Dr Rosana Garciandia launched legal policy recommendations on state responsibility for modern slavery at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The recommendations aim to help states and other stakeholders tackle modern slavery by exploring how the existing mechanism and best practices can be used to enhance state responsibility in this area. The recommendations are available to download here in English, Arabic, Chinese, French and Spanish.

The launch event gathered over 60 representatives of states, international organisations and civil society. Chaired by Dr James Cockayne (Director of the Centre for Policy Research of the United Nations University), the launch featured presentations on the project, the factual scenarios and the recommendations by Dr Philippa Webb and Dr Rosana Garciandia. The agenda also featured two distinguished commentaries. Professor Brad Blitz (Director of the British Academy Programme on Tackling Slavery, Human Trafficking and Child Labour in Modern Business) observed that the project 'forms an important intellectual bridge to consider efforts to mitigate the harms of modern slavery'.

Professor Kristen E. Boon (Miriam T. Rooney Professor of Law at Seton Hall) analysed the principal aspects of the international law of state responsibility applied to modern slavery and commended, in particular, the recommendations on the waiver of immunity to the audience. The video of the event is available on the UN TV website. A short highlights video is also available here.

The project is led by Dr Philippa Webb and Dr Rosana Garciandia in partnership with the United Nations University, and is funded by the British Academy scheme ‘Tackling the UK’s International Challenges 2017’.

More information on the project is available here.