Kelly M. Fay Rodríguez was the U.S. Special Representative for International Labor Affairs from 2022 to 2025. Ms. Rodriguez is co-founder and principal of the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice and a senior fellow at the Carr-Ryan Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, as well as guest lecturer at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She also leads a new Competence Center for Human Rights Due Diligence.
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Stopping Forced Labor
How Policy Changes Could Affect Workers, Businesses, and Nations
Wednesday, April 30, 2025, 1pm
EDT
Event Overview
As the Trump administration rewrites U.S. trade policy and 2025 European Union rules banning goods made with forced labor go into effect, many questions about trade’s global impact have arisen.
Some of what we buy worldwide is produced by an estimated 28 workers in forced-labor situations. New government leaders in Washington and Brussels will influence how forced labor is uncovered as well as how regulations to control it are developed, enforced, or even reversed.
Join Jason Judd of the Global Labor Institute (GLI) at Cornell’s ILR School and two global labor governance experts, Samira Rafaela and Kelly Fay Rodríguez, as they discuss different approaches being taken by the U.S. and European countries and how those differences could unfold for individuals, companies, and consumers.
Some of what we buy worldwide is produced by an estimated 28 workers in forced-labor situations. New government leaders in Washington and Brussels will influence how forced labor is uncovered as well as how regulations to control it are developed, enforced, or even reversed.
Join Jason Judd of the Global Labor Institute (GLI) at Cornell’s ILR School and two global labor governance experts, Samira Rafaela and Kelly Fay Rodríguez, as they discuss different approaches being taken by the U.S. and European countries and how those differences could unfold for individuals, companies, and consumers.
What You'll Learn
- What forced labor looks like
- The impact of new U.S. and European leadership
- How governments, firms, and workers themselves can combat forced labor
- Why voters, advocates, and consumers matter in the fight against forced labor
Speakers
Kelly Fay Rodríguez
Former Special Representative for International Labor Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Samira Rafaela was a member of the European Parliament from 2019 to 2024. She was a member of the International Trade Women’s Rights and Gender Equality and Employment and Social Affairs committees.
Before serving in the European Parliament, she was the national project leader for diversity and inclusion on the commissioner’s staff of the Netherlands Police. She studied public administration at Leiden University and specialized in crisis and security management.
As a trade committee member in the European Parliament, she has made trade policies more gender-sensitive, fair and progressive. Samira was the parliament’s lead negotiator for the groundbreaking EU law against forced labor. Known as the Forced Labor Ban, it combats forced labor within the EU and in relation to products imported into the EU market.
She was also the rapporteur on the groundbreaking Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive for the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. As standing rapporteur for the trade agreement with Chile, she effectively advocated for the first dedicated EU gender and grade chapter on behalf of the European Parliament. For Samira, the economic empowerment of women and the inclusion of a gender and human rights lens in EU trade policy are key issues to create a fairer world, and so is an equal trade relation with Africa and Latin America.
In 2020, Samira was selected by Politico Europe as one of the 20 MEPs to watch in 2020 for her contribution to making trade more green and fair. In 2024, the MEP Influence Index mentioned Samira as one of the most influential MEPs in the area of trade and social policies in the full mandate of ’19-’24.
She was also the lead negotiator on the new EU Pay Transparency directive. This directive aims to promote transparency and fairness in pay by requiring EU companies to disclose information about their pay practices, including gender pay gaps.
In 2020, Samira won the Harper’s Bazaar International Woman of the Year Award for her efforts for the economic and social independence of women in Europe. She has championed sexual and reproductive health and rights for women as the sexual and reproductive health and rights coordinator for Renew Europe in the European Parliament.
In 2016, Samira completed the Transatlantic Inclusion Leaders Network program of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She is now a nonresident visiting fellow at the Cornell ILR School’s Global Labor Institute, where she works on her expertise – forced labor and corporate accountability.
Jason Judd
Executive Director, Global Labor Institute
Cornell ILR School
Jason Judd is Executive Director of the Cornell ILR Global Labor Institute, which focuses on improving global labor practices. He previously led the Ship to Shore Rights Project at the International Labor Organization in Bangkok and served as Vice President of the Fair Labor Association in Washington, D.C., where he directed all accountability programs, including the FLA’s Fair Compensation work.
Mr. Judd has worked in senior roles for the ILO’s Better Work program, Demos (New York), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the AFL-CIO, the Solidarity Center, and the Industrial Areas Foundation. His work has been featured in the New York Times and Financial Times, as well as on PBS. A former Fulbright Fellow, Mr. Judd holds an A.B. in Economics from Duke University and an MPA from l’École Nationale d’Administration (ENA/RULE).
Kelly Fay Rodríguez
Former Special Representative for International Labor Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Kelly M. Fay Rodríguez was the U.S. Special Representative for International Labor Affairs from 2022 to 2025. Ms. Rodriguez is co-founder and principal of the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice and a senior fellow at the Carr-Ryan Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, as well as guest lecturer at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She also leads a new Competence Center for Human Rights Due Diligence.
Samira Rafaela was a member of the European Parliament from 2019 to 2024. She was a member of the International Trade Women’s Rights and Gender Equality and Employment and Social Affairs committees.
Before serving in the European Parliament, she was the national project leader for diversity and inclusion on the commissioner’s staff of the Netherlands Police. She studied public administration at Leiden University and specialized in crisis and security management.
As a trade committee member in the European Parliament, she has made trade policies more gender-sensitive, fair and progressive. Samira was the parliament’s lead negotiator for the groundbreaking EU law against forced labor. Known as the Forced Labor Ban, it combats forced labor within the EU and in relation to products imported into the EU market.
She was also the rapporteur on the groundbreaking Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive for the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. As standing rapporteur for the trade agreement with Chile, she effectively advocated for the first dedicated EU gender and grade chapter on behalf of the European Parliament. For Samira, the economic empowerment of women and the inclusion of a gender and human rights lens in EU trade policy are key issues to create a fairer world, and so is an equal trade relation with Africa and Latin America.
In 2020, Samira was selected by Politico Europe as one of the 20 MEPs to watch in 2020 for her contribution to making trade more green and fair. In 2024, the MEP Influence Index mentioned Samira as one of the most influential MEPs in the area of trade and social policies in the full mandate of ’19-’24.
She was also the lead negotiator on the new EU Pay Transparency directive. This directive aims to promote transparency and fairness in pay by requiring EU companies to disclose information about their pay practices, including gender pay gaps.
In 2020, Samira won the Harper’s Bazaar International Woman of the Year Award for her efforts for the economic and social independence of women in Europe. She has championed sexual and reproductive health and rights for women as the sexual and reproductive health and rights coordinator for Renew Europe in the European Parliament.
In 2016, Samira completed the Transatlantic Inclusion Leaders Network program of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She is now a nonresident visiting fellow at the Cornell ILR School’s Global Labor Institute, where she works on her expertise – forced labor and corporate accountability.
Jason Judd
Executive Director, Global Labor Institute
Cornell ILR School
Jason Judd is Executive Director of the Cornell ILR Global Labor Institute, which focuses on improving global labor practices. He previously led the Ship to Shore Rights Project at the International Labor Organization in Bangkok and served as Vice President of the Fair Labor Association in Washington, D.C., where he directed all accountability programs, including the FLA’s Fair Compensation work.
Mr. Judd has worked in senior roles for the ILO’s Better Work program, Demos (New York), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the AFL-CIO, the Solidarity Center, and the Industrial Areas Foundation. His work has been featured in the New York Times and Financial Times, as well as on PBS. A former Fulbright Fellow, Mr. Judd holds an A.B. in Economics from Duke University and an MPA from l’École Nationale d’Administration (ENA/RULE).
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