Prof Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson

Sonja AYEB-KARLSSON | Professor (Associate) | PhD Development Studies | University College London, London | UCL | Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction | Research profile Prof Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson, Professor of Intersectional Justice at University College London (UCL). Her research is broad and interdisciplinary with a particular focus on (human) rights and violence, as...

Researchgate: www.researchgate.net/profile/Sonj...

The Conversation: theconversation.com/profiles/dr-...

Follow me on:

Twitter / X: x.com/PrfAyebKarls...

BlueSky: bsky.app/profile/prof...

TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@profayebkarlsson

Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?...

Take a look at my @ucl research expert profile: profiles.ucl.ac.uk/87069-sonja-ayebkarlsson

Have a look at the UCL Everyday Disasters and Violences Research Group: www.ucl.ac.uk/risk-disaste...

Access my work, mostly free and open access, via Google Scholar: scholar.google.com/citations?us...

I mostly post about my research expertise; violences, #entrapment and intersectional #injustices including through our #legal systems such as the family and criminal #courts or in the context of human #trafficking and exploitation.

I am a core member of Hague Mothers, and the Council of Europe’s Network of Specialised lawyers and NGOs assisting women victims of violence.

At UCL, I am the founder and I lead the ‘Everyday Disasters and Violences Research Group’. Before joining UCL, I was a Senior Researcher at the United Nations University’s Migration Section. I also direct the mental health and intersectionality work of the Lancet Countdown…

…violence and the use of certain legal weapons, or lawfare, to entrap them in continued legal abuse (whether through the ‘alienation’ label, Hague Convention parental ‘abduction’ proceedings or beyond.

…and (legal) entrapment, and their overlaps with migration, refugees, trafficking, health and mental wellbeing.

I am increasingly interested in deepening our understanding of why women and children are failed by our legal and societal protection systems when seeking to escape…

Prof Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson is a Professor of Intersectional Justice and a world leading senior researcher at @ucl in London, UK.

Her research includes 100 publications whereof over 50 peer reviewed interdisciplinary articles with a particular focus on violence…

#HumanTrafficking
#modernslavery
#TheTrumpDoctrine
#venezuelastateintervention
#usirantensions

The article is open access, publicly available and free to read here:

Ayeb-Karlsson, S. and Valiquette, T. (2026). Trump claims Venezuela does not meet trafficking standards — but what about the USA? The Lancet doi.org/10.1016/S014...

To access the PDF: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

as “Venezuela does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.” What is really behind these interventions - in a newly published article in The Lancet we analyze the Venezuela trafficking claims.

Yesterday the USA and Israel launched a military intervention into Iran. The 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, claims that he needs to “defend the American people” just like he considered that political intervention into Venezuela was necessary…

#aworldfreeofexploitation
#modernslavery
#venezuelastateintervention

Ayeb-Karlsson, S. and Valiquette, T. (2026). Trump claims Venezuela does not meet trafficking standards — but what about the USA? The Lancet doi.org/10.1016/S014...

To access the PDF: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

#HumanTraffickingandExploitation
#TheTrumpDoctrine

Have a look at our dive into the trafficking and exploitation landscape in the USA, while posing the question; what else lingers behind the US State intervention into Venezuela?

The article is open access, publicly available and free to read here:

…and is not making significant efforts to do so.”

As research experts in the area of human trafficking and exploitation based at @ucl.ac.uk, co-author Tyler Valiquette and I ask; what about trafficking and exploitation in the USA?

Just out in The Lancet, the 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump claims that political intervention into Venezuela was necessary considering that “Venezuela does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking…

TAKE NOTE ✍🏼
“I have said that this judgment is not ‘about Ms Gill’, and that is right. It is about those individuals who hold themselves out as ‘psychologists’ and are willing to be instructed in Family Court cases, but who are neither registered nor chartered as psychologists.”

The tragic murder of her sons, Jack and Paul Sykes, by their domestically abusive father is a sobering reminder of the fatal consequences of domestic violence.

#legalentrapment
#coercivecontrol
#changefamilycourt
#filicideawareness
#metoofamilycourt

…where children are at risk of known domestic abusers.

I will do so while thinking of Claire Throssell, a member of our constituency, and her tireless work to prevent domestic abusers having contact with their children.

Repost @MarieTidball For too long, domestic abuse against women, girls, children and men, has been ignored.

As the Victims and Courts Bill progresses, I will be making the case for ending the presumption of contact in family courts,…

As we celebrate the success regarding the removal of the presumption of parental involvement, we must never forget the loss of Jack and Paul, and their mum’s endless battle for justice! ❤️

Their lives were not lost because they were too afraid to speak of the violence at the hands of their father, they spoke up, and so did their mum, Claire, loud and clear, and yet the family court system failed them.

Instagram Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

Jack and Paul changed the law, Claire Throssell MBE (@clairethrossell) and Dr Marie Tidball MP (@MarieTidball) were their voices to make it happen, but Jack and Paul should not have had to sacrifice their lives for this legal reform. www.instagram.com/reel/DVO_IDf...

Friday 13.02.2026, Opening Keynote, Family Court Crisis Event in the UK by @fcmommabear

#UnbreakableSoul #EmpoweredWomenEmpowerWomen #MeTooFamilyCourt #changefamilycourt #legalentrapment

“If she goes to the GP and asks them to treat and record the injuries, the signs of the child being sexually abused, she becomes ‘dangerous’ and ‘mentally disordered’ - she starts hearing an expression she has never heard before; Munchausen by Proxy.”
-Prof Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson (@profayebkarlsson)

Repost @vice Our anonymous informant used to review the worst content uploaded to WhatsApp and Facebook, and his stories from the inside paint a horrifying picture.

#childsexualabuse #childsexualexploitation #imagebasedabuse #deepfakes #childsexualabusematerial

…proceedings in the UK. The team was then told by the management to avoid drawing attention to him and his former employment.

Meta denies any wrongdoing.

The world is not a safe place.

According to a Meta whistleblower, Meta hired a pedofile to review child sexual abuse material on WhatsApp and Facebook - he put his name forward to spend the upcoming nine months reviewing the gravest and most serious content up until he was extradited to face criminal court…

📣 New peer reviewed open access article just out: Ayeb-Karlsson, S. et al. The need for a systems approach to better understand the linkages between natural resources and human (im)mobility. Sustain Sci (2026). doi.org/10.1007/s116...

#trappedpopulations #immobility #violence #systemsthinking