Prof. Tomoya Obokata

Prof. Tomoya Obokata (Japan) was appointed as the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences in March 2020. He is a Japanese scholar of international law and human rights, specialising in transnational organised crime, human trafficking and modern slavery. Prof. Obokata currently serves as Professor of International Human Rights Law at York Law School, and previously taught at Keele University, Queen's University Belfast and Dundee University (all in the United Kingdom Great Britain and Northern Ireland). He has extensive experience of working on the issues of transnational crime, human trafficking and modern slavery with relevant stakeholders, including the UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Northern Ireland Assembly All Party Group on Human Trafficking, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, the International Organisation for Migration and the European Union. Mr. Obokata also worked as a legal clerk for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Japan. He has published widely on the topics mentioned.