About the project

This is the first research project to apply a reproductive justice approach to investigate forms of reproductive exploitation and reproductive violence in modern slavery and human trafficking (MS/HT). This multi-level, mixed-methods nested analysis project investigates the nexus between modern slavery and human trafficking and reproductive justice from theoretical, law and policy, practice, and survivor perspectives. Despite increasing calls to address MS/HT with human rights and public health lenses, and in the context of a global erosion of reproductive rights, reproductive exploitation remains an understudied and under-theorised issue that has grave health consequences for reproductive subjects. The goal is to develop a reproductive justice framework for modern slavery and human trafficking research and practice to better identify and address forms of reproductive exploitation, coercion, abuse and violence and address their health consequences.

Based on insights from feminist theory and from fieldwork in three focus countries: the United Kingdom, Kenya, and South Africa, this project seeks to understand how people have understood and applied reproductive justice in different contexts, including Global North and South perspectives and accounting for the ongoing impacts of colonialism on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

It is our hope that this project will produce greater conceptual clarity on forms of reproductive exploitation, better understanding of how reproductive violence, coercion and abuse manifests in MS/HT contexts, and how reproductive justice might be operationalised in anti-trafficking research and practice to improve individuals’ sexual and reproductive health and rights outcomes.