Maayan Niezna

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Modern Slavery and Human Rights

Bonavero Institute of Human Rights

Biography

Maayan Niezna is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Modern Slavery and Human Rights at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, and a Fellow of the Modern Slavery Policy and Evidence Centre, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Her socio-legal research focuses on trafficking for labour exploitation, the regulation of labour migration, and the rights of non-citizens. She holds PhD in Law from Kent Law School, MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics, and LL.B in Law and Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at TraffLab: Labor Perspective to Human Trafficking (ERC project).

Her PhD (supported by the Modern Law Review Scholarship) concerned the elements that constitute trafficking for labour exploitation (including slavery and forced labour): the concepts and ideas that explain what is trafficking for labour exploitation, and the policies that result in trafficking. The latter were discussed through an empirical study of developments in policy areas that made migrant and Palestinian workers in Israel vulnerable to exploitation.

Prior to her doctoral studies, she led the legal work on trafficking at the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants-Israel, worked on issues concerning the freedom of movement of Palestinian resident as a lawyer at Gisha-Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, and worked on issues related to trafficking at the Office of the National Anti-trafficking Coordinator, Israeli Ministry of Justice, and UNHCR. Her work on trafficking and slavery has been cited by NGOs, policymakers, and Israel’s Supreme Court, and has been referred to in parliamentary committee meetings and national media.

Publications

Journal Article (7)

Niezna M and Davidov G, ‘Consent in Contracts of Employment’ (2023) 86(5) MODERN LAW REVIEW 1134

Niezna M, ‘Paper Chains: Tied Visas, Migration Policies, and Legal Coercion’ (2022) 49(2) Journal of Law and Society 362

Niezna M, ‘Labour Exploitation in Human Trafficking Law’ (2022) 51(2) INDUSTRIAL LAW JOURNAL 500

Niezna M and Agarwal P, ‘Self-Education and Collective Learning: Forming a Critical "modern Slavery" Study group’’ [2021] (17) ANTI-TRAFFICKING REVIEW 133

Kurlander Y, Niezna M and Shamir H, ‘COVID-19’s Impact on Non-Israeli Workers: Vulnerability, Commodification and Hope’ (2021) 21(2) Israeli Sociology 82

Niezna M, ‘A Failure Foretold – Procedures As Instruments for the Denial of Substantial Rights from Palestinian Residents’ (2018) 9(2) Tel Aviv University Journal of Law & Social Change (Ma’asei Mishpat) 127

Niezna M, Kurlander Y and Shamir H, ‘Underlying Conditions: The Increased Vulnerability of Migrant Workers Under COVID-19 in Israel’ 6(2) Journal of Modern Slavery 133

Niezna M, ‘Identification and Enforcement’ in H Shamir and M Niezna (eds.), An Alternative Anti-Trafficking Action Plan: A Proposed Model Based on a Labor Approach to Trafficking (TraffLab Research Group Policy Paper, Tel Aviv University 2020)

Niezna M, ‘The Concept of Human Dignity in Israeli Jurisprudence’ in A Harel, E H. Morgenstern and Y Lushinsky (eds.), LGBTQ Rights in Israel: Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation and the Law (The Harry and Michael Sacher Institute for Legislative Research and Comparative Law, Nevo Publishers 2016)

Internet publication (3)

Niezna M, ‘Traded Like Commodities and Transferred Abroad for Processing’: Legal and Political Claims Against the UK-Rwanda Deal’ (Border Criminologies, 10 May 2022)

Niezna M, ‘Under Control: Palestinian Workers in Israel During COVID-19’ (Border Criminologies, 1 January 2020)

Niezna M, ‘Consent, Sex and ‘Sexceptionalism’: Comments on Robin West’s 2019 Chorley Lecture, ’Consent, Legitimation and Dysphoria’’ (Modern Law Review Forum, 4 October 2019)

Niezna M, ‘Offenses Against Liberty: Between the Criminal and the Administrative Law [Hebrew]’ (2020) 102 HaMishpat’ Online: Human Rights 4 (case-note)

Niezna M, ‘And He Shall Rule over You – The Acquittal of Goel Ratzon from the Count of Holding a Person under Conditions of Slavery [Hebrew]’ (2014) 34 HaMishpat’ Online: Human Rights 4 (case-note)

Shamir H and Niezna M, ‘An Alternative Anti-Trafficking Action Plan: A Proposed Model Based on a Labor Approach to Trafficking’ (M Niezna ed., TraffLab Research Group Policy Paper, Tel Aviv University 2022)

Niezna M and Tadjer M, ‘Situation Report: Developments and Reform in the Employment Conditions of Palestinians in Israel’ (Kav LaOved - Worker’s Hotline 2021)

Niezna M, ‘The Occupation of Labor - Employment of Palestinian Workers in Israel’ (Kav LaOved (Worker’s Hotline) 2018)