CYIL 2012

MODERN SLAVERY AND CURRENT INTERNATIONAL LAW Article 16 states that “Everyone shall have the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.” T he Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998) characterizes “enslavement” as a crime against humanity falling within the jurisdiction of the Court, and describes “enslavement” as the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in persons, in particular women and children. 17 It also categorises “rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity” as crimes against humanity. 18 The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000) defines trafficking in persons 19 and notes that it involves the movement of a person using violence, coercion, deception or the abuse of a position of power for the purposes of exploitation. This Protocol recognises that trafficking takes place for both sexual and labour exploitation and requires governments to pass legislation which prohibits and punishes all forms of trafficking in people. The current international law in its particular international treaties and other documents does not clarify the legal nature of consequences of breaking the abolishment of slavery. In this case the main question which arises is: what kind of offence is committed when slavery takes place? Current international law does not give us a direct answer. According to some adopted treaties there is an obligation for signatories to adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offences the conduct defined by treaties for criminalization of such an offence when it was committed intentionally. With regards to these treaties’ obligations, it is possible to discuss the conventional criminal offence. 20 Such a criminal offence will be in force just among the state parties of a particular treaty. On the other hand we also need to discuss the legal nature of that criminal offence in the light of international crime. We can take this into account mainly with regards to current development of international law. At this level we cannot view this issue as one branch of international law separate from others. This matter is directly linked to the development of international law of human rights and international criminal law and at some point it causes the proliferation of these two branches. The 19 The Protocol’s full definition of trafficking is: “… the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of the position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.” 20 See for instance: Palermo Protocol ( 2000 ), art. 5. 17 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; art. 7 (2c). 18 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; art. 7 (1g).

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