The proposed two programme aligns with the values and mission of the Mary Robinson Centre, using education and collaboration to address critical global challenges. By focusing on gender equality and climate action, the programme will empower diverse communities to contribute meaningfully to a more inclusive and sustainable future.

FLAC is seeking to develop its capacity to provide legal assistance to people and communities experiencing discrimination and disadvantage (including people experiencing poverty). The Tang Prize Grant will assist FLAC in ensuring that their services are more accessible to this cohort. This will involve them developing referral pathways from Civil Society organisations working directly with relevant groups to FLAC’s new preventative and early legal assistance services and to FLAC’s Independent Law Centre. They also need to develop the expertise and experience of staff in the areas of law where there is unmet legal need amongst that cohort.

Around the world migrant workers are frequently subjected to flawed recruitment processes. In particular many migrant workers will be expected to pay significant recruitment fees, costs and other charges to secure employment abroad. For lowwage workers, these payments may amount to many months’ salary. Many migrants will take out high-interest loans to afford these costs, set against the promise of future earnings. This frequently leaves workers indebted and vulnerable to a range of further exploitations. For some workers, the ensuing debt bondage effectively means that they become victims of forced labour and trafficking.


Recruitment is a business cost and should be paid by business. Increasingly the notion of workers paying for the costs of their own recruitment is being challenged. Many organisations advocate for a new recruitment model (first developed by IHRB) based on The Employer Pays Principle – No worker should pay for a job. The costs of recruitment should be borne not by the worker but by the employer. An increasing number of companies are developing recruitment policies that prohibit the charging of recruitment fees to workers. The Responsible Recruitment Register is a simple register of companies who have done so and made their policies publicly available. It contains links to the company policies or codes of conduct and relevant implementation guidance.