Abstract:

Prohibition of slavery, slave trade, servitude, human trafficking, forced or compulsory labour and similar practices in international law has a long-standing background within the historical development of human rights law. While the relevant international materials have caused a decrease in these practices, they could not be completely eradicated. Moreover their new and more subtle forms, as it were by developing immunity to the law, are alarmingly on the rise in many parts of the world. Article 4 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms prohibiting “slavery and forced labour” and the European Court of Human Rights case law have surely an important place in the relevant international legal instruments. ECtHR’s judgments serve not only to decide the cases brought before the Court but also to elucidate and develop the human rights and the contracting states’ obligations under Article 4 of the Convention. ECtHR, while doing so, makes reference to the relevant international law rules and common standards of the member states of the Council of Europe in order to determine the meaning and scope of the provision and sometimes to provide a higher level of protection. On the other hand the Court attempts to strike a balance between the competing interests in the light of the underlying objectives of Article 4 when deciding whether a service required to be performed falls within the prohibition of forced or compulsory labour since this prohibition has not an absolute character. All these features show that it is essential to examine carefully the subject which has many aspects and maintains its importance today as in the past.

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