Human Rights Violation

Human trafficking is a blatant violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, and which, in this respect, represents customary international law. Article 4 forbids every form of slavery. The article says: "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms."¹

As a matter of fact, every year thousand of humans become trafficked and are induced to work fraudulently, or forced to work under the threat or use of violence or other forms of coercion. This treatment not only denies them their liberty, but also denies them their established right to health as it says in Article 25, Paragraph 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."²

Treaty protections against this modern-day form of slavery are available in Article 8 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Human trafficking also constitutes the international crime of enslavement, a crime against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court. States have the obligation to not only criminalize, investigate and prosecute this offense; they have to prevent it by raising awareness, they have to identify, rescue and rehabilitate its victims.³

Literature

[1] United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN General Assembly Resolution 217 A (III), Paris, 10th December 1948.
[2] Ibid. See also Article 12(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: "The States Parties to this Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health."
[3] Roza Pati, States' Positive Obligations with Respect to Human Trafficking: The European Court of Human Rights Breaks New Ground in Rantsev v. Cyprus & Russia, 29 Boston University International Law Journal 79 (2011); Roza Pati, Der Schutz der EMRK bei Menschenhandel: Rantsev v. Zypern und Russland, Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 128 (2011).