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Fernanda de Mendonça Melo
Fernanda de Mendonça Melo
Project Coordinator and Researcher
Clinic of Slave Labor and Human Trafficking, Federal University of Minas Gerais (CTETP/UFMG)
ChainGE Lab Research Fellow
Fernanda de Mendonça Melo is a lawyer, researcher, and project coordinator at the Clinic of Slave Labor and Human Trafficking at UFMG, where she focuses on supply chains, corporate sustainability, and forced labor policies. She is a PhD candidate in Law at UFMG, one of Brazil’s top law schools. Additionally, she serves as Vice President of the Committee on Combating Contemporary Slave Labor at the Minas Gerais Bar Association (OAB/MG) for the 2025-2028 term and provides pro bono legal assistance to rescued workers.
With 14 years of experience in major multinational companies as a labor lawyer and ESG administrative coordinator, Fernanda collaborates with key actors in Brazil’s justice system and institutions fighting forced labor. She leads projects funded by various international organizations and published the book Trabalho Escravo em Cadeias Produtivas: De Quem é a Responsabilidade?. She was awarded a fellowship by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to present her research at RDW (Switzerland) in 2023 and has presented studies at LERA (USA) and LLRN (Poland). In 2025, she will be a visiting researcher at the ChainGE Lab (ERC) at Tel Aviv University, reinforcing her engagement at the intersection of academic research and human rights advocacy.
Her research at ChainGE Lab examines the judicial accountability of leading companies in the coffee supply chain convicted of slave labor in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The study explores the disconnect between corporate discourse and actual practices, investigating how these companies adopt and communicate sustainability and ESG policies, often without implementing tangible changes. The research maps judicial rulings from the Minas Gerais Regional Labor Court (TRT-3) from 2015 to 2024, analyzing how formal compliance with ESG standards relates to persistent degrading conditions in coffee production and assessing the impact of international regulatory pressures on corporate governance.
The goal is to determine whether companies that formally commit to ESG standards genuinely improve working conditions in the coffee sector or use these initiatives as a superficial strategy. The study considers the influence of European Union due diligence regulations to evaluate whether external sanctions and compliance requirements lead to structural changes. By addressing these issues, the research aims to contribute to enhanced corporate accountability monitoring and the development of more effective policies to eradicate forced labor in coffee production.