Naomi Lott

Dr Naomi Lott is the John Fell Research Fellow, at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. Naomi is also a Lecturer in Law at UCL, where she teaches Public International Law, International Human Rights Law, Family Law, and Legal Research Methods. Naomi has recently completed her ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Law. Naomi has also taught Family Law at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. 

Naomi completed a PhD at the University of Nottingham on the child's right to play (Article 31, UNCRC), examining the right from conception through to implementation.  This research has recently been published in 'The Right of the Child to Play: From Conception to Implementation' (Routledge, 2023). Naomi holds a LLM in Human Rights Law and a Masters in Socio-Legal Research Methods from the University of Nottingham, and a degree in International Politics from Aberystwyth University. Naomi has conducted research for/funded by the United Nations University, Delta 8.7, the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham,the ERC, the Walk Free Foundation, and the ILO and IOM. 

RESEARCH

Naomi's research spans three fields of law: children rights; general human rights; modern slavery and human trafficking.

Recently, Naomi has published a monograph on 'The Right of the Child to Play: From Conception to Implementation'. This monograph has provided a thorough analysis of the right to play, a previously 'forgotten right'. The monograph investigates the right to play from its conception (the drafting processes of the Declaration on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of the Child), through to the historical and current work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in relation to the right to play, and the challenges and opportunities facing the implementation and enjoyment of the right on the ground. Naomi's research involved archival, doctrinal and empirical research.

Naomi recently concluded a project looking to advance a child rights informed approach to antislavery policy and practice, which involved a systematic evidence review of literature at the intersection of children's rights and modern slavery. This found a significant dearth of meaningful engagement with both fields of study in the literature. Where the two fields of modern slavery and children’s rights have intersected, with meaningful discussion of both topics, it is of considerable value and offers critical insights. The report calls for an expansion of such engagement in order to improve the possibility that modern slavery legislation, policies, programmes and practices were informed by the children’s rights framework.

Naomi is currently conducting research that (1) aims to provide an informed framework for implementing the right to play; (2) develops a theory of forgotten rights; and (3) examines the duties of the State in supporting parents child-rearing responsibilities, under international law.