Jennifer Burn

Jennifer Burn is the director of Anti-Slavery Australia at the University of Technology Sydney. She is nationally recognised as a thought leader in the field of human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices, particularly for her work on the prevention of all forms of modern slavery, and her focus on victim support and remediation. 

Through her research, advocacy and practice she has pursued legislative amendments and policy developments to promote best practice responses for the prevention of modern slavery and to ensure survivors of modern slavery have access to the protection and support they need. This focus has led to law reform such as amendments to the trafficking visa framework, and to a better approach to survivor support, particularly that support should not be contingent on participation with criminal justice processes.

Since 2003, Jennifer has provided legal support to victims and survivors of trafficking and modern slavery, leading to Anti-Slavery Australia’s inception as a law and research centre in 2011.  The Centre provides direct pro bono legal representation to survivors of all forms of slavery including servitude, forced labour and  forced marriage. Anti-Slavery Australia develops training and education for communities and businesses and has created a free course on Modern Slavery, available through the UTS website. Anti-Slavery Australia welcomes student contributions to anti-slavery initiatives and has a robust community engagement focus which is at the heart of its exciting new multi-stakeholder project on forced marriage prevention https://antislavery.org.au/speak-now/ .

Jennifer's work has been recognised through awards such as the 2016 UTS Deputy Vice Chancellor’s Medal for Research Impact and the 2020 Law Council of Australia Outstanding Migration Lawyer of the Year. Jennifer was appointed to the inaugural Australian Government National Roundtable on Human Trafficking in 2008 and continues to serve. Jennifer has been a member of multiple working groups of the National Roundtable on Human Trafficking and Slavery including groups focused on transparency in supply chains and labour exploitation. Jennifer also served as the Interim Anti-Slavery Commissioner for NSW from 2018 to 2020. Jennifer is a Board Member of the Mercy Foundation and a member of the Advisory Group for the Centre for Research on Modern Slavery (CReMS) at the University of Auckland Business School And  a member of the NSW Police Multicultural Advisory Council.

Jennifer’s current policy focus is to develop and promote a national compensation scheme for victims and survivors of modern slavery.