Rhian Lewis
23 oct 2025
Session summary
Shifts in power, populism and politics, which cause LGBTQI+ people to feel unsafe, may lead to increased forced migration. Forced migration, among other factors, contributes to a higher likelihood that LGBTQI+ people will be targeted and trafficked, when compared with cis-gender and heterosexual people. This session will begin with an overview of this context, as well as explaining the sexual exploitation and specific harms that LGBTQI+ victims of trafficking often encounter. However, LGBTQI+ human trafficking victims are little discussed in international human rights law and they receive barely, if any, reparations for violations of their human rights. Therefore, this session seeks to contribute to a gap in research for victims of human trafficking. Reparations-work for all victims of trafficking is not yet fully developed, and discussions centred on reparations for minorities within the overall victim-group are rarer still. For most victims of trafficking, if remedy is given at all, it is solely compensatory. This session will explore the different forms that reparation can take, which spans beyond compensation. I will describe an alternative reparative framework that is tailored to the experiences of LGBTQI+ victims of trafficking. 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the first international protocol for human trafficking victims, the Palermo Protocol. In this session, I will advocate for an amendment to that protocol, to reflect the progress in reparations-work in the intervening years. Such an amendment will benefit all trafficking victims, as well as one of the most marginalised victim groups: LGBTQI+ victims of human trafficking.
Biography
Rhian Lewis is Head of Pro Bono and Counsel at Farrer & Co. She is a solicitor specialising in international human rights law, who focuses on advocating for effective remedies for victims of human trafficking and modern slavery. Rhian was previously a finalist for the UK in the United Nations GC SDG Pioneer Awards and she has recently graduated from New College, Oxford, following her MSc in International Human Rights Law.
