Modern Slavery Research Center

The Modern Slavery Research Center is born in an international context with 40 million modern slaves. In a world with several anti-slavery policies that have proven two be insufficient in a series of scenarios, contexts and particularities. It takes place in the city of Rio de Janeiro, a territory with several issues that surely contributes to a context of vulnerability to modern slavery. The Center counts on local partners to investigate the agenda to think alternative paths to fight modern slavery and to build a proper agenda with goals to fight, by enhancing current public policies.

For that, it first explored the impact of supply chains in anti-slavery measures through a partnership with the University of Nottingham (“The interaction of law and supply chain management in cross-judicial supply chains: supply chain effectiveness of modern slavery legislation”). Afterwards, through a project called Global Cities Free of Slavery, also with the partnership of the University of Nottingham, is trying to understand the relevance of cities in the anti-slavery agenda and how can a network cooperate to encourage innovative policy and practices through comparison and adaptation of novel initiatives and ideas and place-based responses to this crime (Global Cities Free of Slavery).

Therefore, we believes that both private sector and cities can be focus of resistance to modern slavery, considering place-based anti-slavery strategies to relate local government and law enforcement efforts with voluntary and community-based actors and actions to develop sustainable practices for its eradication. In this context it is fundamental to remember the colonial slavery heritage that Brazil and the city of Rio de Janeiro carry, to understand the relevance of the Modern Slavery Research Center.

In the past centuries, around 5.848.266 million African slaves arrived in Brazil to work in plantations, houses and to constitute this massive land as a country. Of this amount of people, nearly a million are estimated to have disembarked in Rio de Janeiro, precisely in the Valongo Wharf. The area around the old Warf became a space occupied by the recently freed slaves from several nations, especially since the Eusebio de Queiroz Law – that abolished International Slave Trade in Brazil (1850) – and the Golden Law – that abolished slavery in the country (1888). Later this space was called by Heitor dos Prazeres, as “Little Africa” and it is nowadays considered a historical heritage of the city. Another historical legacy is the Favela da Providência, that was the first home of the former slaves, who mostly came from the rural areas, in the southeast region of Brazil. 

However, it is fundamental to point out that the prohibition of legal slavery in the XIX century, was not relevant to the end of this heinous form of subordination of human beings. Since then, conditions analogous to slavery still exist in its worst forms in Brazil, and the city of Rio de Janeiro is not an exception. As understood by relevant scholars and institutions worldwide, modern slavery is one of the main challenges to the development of any country or place and a human rights’ violation, because it is essentially corelated to socioeconomic vulnerabilities that are still perceived in contemporary era, such as: poverty, inequality, segregation, racism, gender discrimination, physical and mental disabilities. 

This way, it is fundamental that BRICS Policy Center is also a reliable space for discussion of such a sensitive agenda in the intellectual, socioeconomical and political fields. With a multidisciplinary team that is restlessness, motivated, and composed by social organizations, local leaderships and several academics around the globe, the Modern Slavery Research Center wants to give voice to the victims and oppressed, for it believes that efficient matters to find concrete results for the fight against modern slavery depends on analysis and investigations that include both classic methods and different approaches.

“Mãos à Carne” Documentary

The film aims to create a debate on the construction of public policy to combat crime and its functionality by demonstrating the current situation of contemporary slavery in Brazil in the livestock sector. By observing the role of the active organizations (public, private, and civil society) in this agenda, it aims to bring knowledge about Brazilian slave labor in livestock, so that, through understanding the entanglement of this situation, it can reach possible joint solutions with actors on the agenda.

Global Cities Free of Slavery Project – GCFS

The Project of a network of Global Cities Free of Slavery is built in a context of existing place-based anti-slavery initiatives to fight the crime of modern slavery, starting with the cities of Rio de Janeiro – Brazil, Nottingham – United Kingdom, Bangkok – Thailand and Maputo – Mozambique. Assuming that knowledge exchange between local actors contributes to deliver an efficient anti-slavery response in a global scale, a network of local governmental agents and social society institutions is on track to be implemented and open to the ones who wish to engage in studies and advocacy to eradicate modern slavery in the world.

The GCFS Network encourages its members to link policymakers, academics, local officials, law enforcement and NGOs with an interest in civic and place-based responses to modern slavery, providing cooperation in the matters of slavery, and co-related crimes. With this international cooperation we intend to build a common ground of understanding to develop, scale and share sustainable approaches to fight modern slavery.

Partners

Rio de Janeiro:

• Public Sector: State Commission to Fight Modern Slavery; Public Defender’s Office; City Hall; Regional Superintendence of Modern-day Slavery; Federal Road Patrol; Labor Prosecutor’s Office; Public Prosecutor’s Office.
• NGO: CARITAS Arquidiocesana; Cooperativa Maravilha; Conexão G!; AprendIN.
• Academia: PUC-Rio (BPC); UFRJ (GPTEC).

Nottingham:

• Public Sector: Nottingham City Counci.
• Academia: University of Nottingham (Rights Lab); United Nations University.

Bangkok:

• NGO: A21.
• Academia: Chulalongkorn University.

Maputo:

• Academia: Eduardo Mondlane University.

Global Cities Documentary (Part 1)

Publications

Related Publications

Also read the article  ‘For the English to see’ or effective change? How supply chains are shaped by laws and regulations, and what that means for the exposure of modern slavery by Silvia Marina Pinheiro, Caroline Emberson and Alexander Trautrims.

Events

Experts

Institutional Support