Prohibition of slavery, servitude and forced labour in the European Convention on Human Rights

The subject of this paper is an analysis of the provisions of article 4 of the European Convention of Human Rights [European Convention] compared with, in particular, the provisions of article 8 of the International Package of Civil and Political Rights. The prohibition of slavery is then analysed in sensu stricto, including trading in slaves, followed by an analysis of the prohibition of servitude in different contexts as presented in reasons for judicial decisions delivered by the European Court of Human Rights [ECHR] in Strasburg. The provisions of Convention No 29 and Convention No 107 of the International Labour Organisation on forced labour and its abolition, sincevthey played an im-portant role in the ECHR judgments, are given most attention. Likewise, excerpts of article 4 clause 3 of the European Convention regarding: prisoners’ work, military service, including alternative military service, extraordinary circumstances and ordinary civil duties are widely discussed. Sadly, slavery, servitude and forced labour do not belong to the past but are still vivid examples of the contemporary world, and international organised crime in particular. Consequently, article 4 continues to remain an important provision interpreted as a contemporary regulation that serves combating the “contemporary forms of slavery”