• Lecturer in Law, University of Reading

Dr Naomi Lott is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Reading. She is the leading children's rights scholar on the right to play. Her recent book looks at the right to play in the context of other children's rights, including the right to life: Lott, N (ed.) The Interdependence of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Understanding the Relationship of the Right to Play with other Convention Rights (Springer, 2025).

Naomi's framework for the right to play sets out four distinct and equally crucial factors for fulfilling the right to play (Lott, N (2025) 'A Framework for Implementing the Right of the Child to Play: Space, Time, Acceptance, Rights-Informed', Human Rights Law Review).

Naomi is also an Associate Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford, where she previously held a John Fell Research Fellowship, and an Early Career Fellowship. Naomi was also a Lecturer in Law at UCL, ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Oxford, Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham and Post-doctoral Research Assistant at the University of Leicester.

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 was 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.

Naomi's monograph, 'The Right of the Child to Play: From Conception to Implementation', 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. This research has informed Lott's framework for implementing the right to play: Space, Time, Acceptance, Rights. Lott's recent project has involved research with 100 children aged 2-18, to further inform this framework.

Naomi's research on modern slavery has 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.

• –present Research Fellow in Law, Survivor Support and Children's Rights, University of Nottingham

• 2020 The University of Nottingham, PhD Socio-Legal Studies

MENAFN02122025000199003603ID1110427369