The winner of this year’s Global Annual Prize on the Abolition of Modern Slavery or the Protection of Human Dignity named after Professor Surya P. Subedi has been announced by the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation of the University of Hull, England. The winner of this year’s prize is Richa Shrestha of Nepal her outstanding essay, Chains of Modern Slavery: Exploring International Trafficking Networks and Foreign Fighters in the Russia-Ukraine War. Richa currently serves as a Judicial Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of Nepal. Her work focuses on human rights law, gender justice, and constitutional rights. She has also been involved in climate justice initiatives, serving as a National Rapporteur at the Sabin Centre for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School and as a Youth Advisor to the United Nations.

The Prize is designed to promote the advancement of scholarship in the study of modern forms of slavery, emancipation, and the protection of human dignity for the benefit of the public. The Prize is open to any graduate in law, politics, social science, and humanities from around the world regardless of their nationality. Professor Subedi obtained his LLM with Distinction at the University of Hull in 1988 and was awarded the highest accolade – the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa – by Hull University in 2020 in recognition of his accomplishments in the fields of international law and human rights.