Azerbaijan

Article 35 Right to work

1) Labor is the basis of personal and public prosperity. (2) Everyone has the right to choose independently, based on his/her abilities, kind of activity, profession, occupation and place of work. (3) Nobody might be forced to work. (4) Labor agreements are concluded voluntarily. Nobody may be forced to conclude labor agreement.

Constitution of the Azerbaijan Republic 1995 (PDF) 

Article 106. Slavery

106.1. The slavery, that is full or partial realization above a person of the competencies inherent to the property right

— shall be punished by imprisonment for the term from five up to ten years.

106.2. The same act accomplished concerning a minor or with the purpose of moving of a person in the foreign state

— shall be punished by imprisonment for the term from seven up to twelve years.

106.3. Slavery sales, that is maintenance of the person with a purpose of transfer into to slave or use as a slave, his sale or an exchange, and also any act connected with slave sales or transfer into slave, as well as sexual slavery or an encroachment on sexual freedom on grounds of slavery

— shall be punished by imprisonment for the term from five up to ten years.

Article 116. Infringement of norms of the international humanitarian right during confrontations

116.0. Infringement of norms of the international humanitarian right during confrontations, shall be :

116.0.17. commitment of other actions connected to rape, sexual slavery, compulsory prostitution, compulsory sterilization, compulsory pregnancy, and also sexual violence ;

[…]

Article 144-1 Human trafficking

144-1.1 Trafficking, i.e. recruitment, obtaining, keeping, harboring, transportation, transfer or acceptance of a person with a purpose of exploitation under the threat of violence or using violence, threats or other means of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception by misusing ability to make pressure or helplessness, or providing or receiving material and other values, privileges or benefits to get a consent of the person that exercises control over another person,

— shall be penalized five to ten years imprisonment.

144-1-2 The same acts:

144-1.2.1. committed against two or more persons;

144-1.2.3. committed against an underage person;

144-1.2.4. committed against a pregnant woman whose pregnancy was evident to the defendant;

144-1.2.4-1. with movement of trafficking victim across the state border of the Republic of Azerbaijan;

144-1.2.5. committed by a group of preliminarily conspired persons, organized group or a criminal association (criminal organization);

144-1.2.6. committed by defendant using his official authority;

144-1.2.7. committed by use or threat of violence which represents a menace to life and health;

144-1.2.8. committed by means of torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment against the victim;

144-1.2.9. committed with the purpose of making use of victim’s organs or tissues

— shall be punishable with imprisonment from eight to twelve years

144-1.3. Should the actions referred to in the ankles 144-1.1 and 144-1.2 be the cause of the death of a victim or other grave results due to negligence

— shall be punishable with ten to fifteen years of imprisonment

Note- “Human exploitation” referred to in this article, shall mean, forced labor (servitude), sexual exploitation, slavery and practices similar to slavery and the resulting dependence, transplantation of human organs and tissues, conduct of illicit biomedical researches on the person, use of a woman as surrogate mother, engaging a person in unlawful, including criminal activities. 2. Any preliminary consent to exploitation, life style or immoral behavior of a human trafficking victim shall not be considered as a fact mitigating the penalty for the person suspected in human trafficking offenses. 3. Hooking, purchase, hold, harboring, transportation, transfer or adoption of a minor with a purpose of his exploitation is recognized trafficking even in case of nonapplication of the methods specified in Article 144-1.1 of the Law.

Article 144-2 Forced Labour

144-2.1. Forcing a person to perform certain work (service) by means of threats, use or threat of coercion, or by means of confinement other than in the situations prescribed by the law

— shall be penalized by imprisonment for the term from four to eight years. 144-2.2. The same acts:

144-2.2.1. committed against two or more persons;

144-2.2.2. committed repeatedly;

144-2.2.3. committed against an underage person; 144-2.2.4. committed against a pregnant woman whose pregnancy was evident to the defendant;

144-2.2.5. committed by defendant using his official authority;

144-2.2.6. committed by a group of preliminarily conspired persons, organized group or a criminal association (criminal organization)

— shall be penalized by imprisonment from seven to ten years.

144-2.3. Should the actions referred to in the articles 144-2.1 and 144-2.2 be the cause of the death of a victim or other grave results due to negligence

— shall be penalized by imprisonment from nine to twelve years.

Criminal Code 1999, as amended in 2013

Article 1. Basic definitions

1.0. The following basic definitions are used in this Law:

1.0.1. human trafficking involving, obtaining, storage, concealment, transportation, delivering or accepting of people (involving, obtaining, storage, concealment, transportation, delivering or accepting children for exploitation purposes shall be considered as human trafficking even if the means stipulated in this Article were not used) for exploitation purposes by using force or under the threat of force, by threat or other methods of compulsion, by means of theft, fraud, deception, abuse of possibility to influence or victim’s weakness, or by providing or obtaining material and other boons, privileges or concession in order to get the consent of the person controlling another person;

1.0.2. human exploitation – forced labour (service), sexual exploitation, slavery, practices similar to slavery and dependence deriving from them, illegally extracting human organs and tissues, conducting illegal bio-medical research on a person, involving into illegal including criminal activity as well as other forms of exploitation of people (if human trafficking is conducted using means specified in Article 1.0.1, the consent of the victim of human trafficking to be subjected to exploitation shall not be taken into account);

1.0.3. forced labour (service) – illegally forcing a person to do certain work (to provide service);

1.0.4. sexual exploitation – using a person for prostitution, sexual slavery or production of pornographic materials, profiting from sexual exploitation of others;

1.0.5. slavery – carrying out powers in full or partially characteristic of the right to property over a person;

1.0.6. practices similar to slavery institutions and practices mentioned in Article 1 of “Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery” from 30 April 1956;

Article 21. Responsibility for human trafficking

21.1. Individuals participating in human trafficking shall be brought before criminal responsibility in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

21.2. Action or inaction of an official that may create conditions for human trafficking shall lead to criminal responsibility in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

21.3. A foreigner or a stateless person who is assumed of being engaged in human trafficking shall not be granted an access to the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan and entry visas issued to them shall be considered void.