A Russian woman, aged 20, had gone to work as an artiste in a cabaret in Cyprus. Three weeks later she was found dead in a street.
Held: The Court upheld her father’s complaint that Cyprus was in breach of article 4 in that its regime for the issue of visas for cabaret artistes had failed to afford effective protection to her against trafficking and that its police had failed properly to investigate events during those weeks which suggested that she was the victim of it.
The act of people trafficking may fall within the scope of the prohibition on servitude contained in Article 4 of the ECHR: ‘There can be no doubt that trafficking threatens the human dignity and fundamental freedoms of its victims and cannot be considered compatible with a democratic society and the values expounded in the Convention. In view of its obligation to interpret the convention in light of present-day conditions, the court considers it unnecessary to identify whether the treatment about which the applicant complains constitutes ‘slavery’, ‘servitude; or ‘forced and compulsory labour’. Instead, the Court concludes that trafficking itself, within the meaning of art.3(a) of the Palermo Protocol and art.4(a) of the Anti-Trafficking Convention, falls within the scope of art.4 of the Convention. The Russian Government’s objection of incompatibility ratione materiae is accordingly dismissed.’
Judges:
Christos Rozakis, P
Citations:
25965/04, [2010] ECHR 22, 28 BHRC 313, [2010] ECHR 22
Links:
Statutes:
European Convention on Human Rights 4
Cited by:
Cited – LM and Others v Regina; Regina v M(L), B(M) and G(D) CACD 21-Oct-2010
Each defendant appealed saying that being themselves the victims of people trafficking, the prosecutions had failed to take into account its obligations under the Convention.
Held: Prosecutors had ‘a three-stage exercise of judgment. The first . .
Cited – N, Regina v CACD 20-Feb-2012
The court considered the offence of child trafficking. The defendants had been the victims of such offences and used for managing cannabis production. It was argued that neither defendant should have been prosecuted.
Held: The appeals failed. . .
Cited – Reyes and Another v Al-Malki and Another CA 5-Feb-2015
The claimants wished to make employment law claims alleging, inter alia, that they had suffered racial discrimination and harassment, and had been paid less than the national minimum wage aganst the respondents. They had been assessed as having been . .
Cited – Hounga v Allen and Another SC 30-Jul-2014
The appellant, of Nigerian origin had been brought here at the age of 14 with false identity papers, and was put to work caring for the respondent’s children. In 2008 she was dismissed and ejected from the house. She brought proceedings alleging . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Human Rights
Updated: 11 August 2022; Ref: scu.392726