Cyprus

Paragraph 126 

Article 10 [of the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus] reads specifically: “No person shall be held in slavery or servitude. No person shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour”. 

Paragraph 127 

In addition, the Secretary-General may note that the Criminal Code of the Republic of Cyprus (Cap. 154) makes some detailed provision for forced labour in section 254, which reads as follows: “Any person who unlawfully compels any person to labour against the will of that person is guilty of a misdemeanour, and liable to imprisonment for one year”. 

Article 128 

…section 9 of the Slave Trade Act, 1824, which provides: “For any (citizen of the Republic of Cyprus) or person within (Cyprus Territory) knowingly to carry away or convey any person as a slave or for the purpose of being imported or brought as a slave to any place, or being sold or dealt with as a slave, or knowingly and wilfully to ship or detain or confined in a ship, any person as a slave or for any such purpose”. This offence is made piracy. Piracy under the foregoing statute is a felony punishable by “imprisonment for life or if accompanied by any assault with intent to murder any person on or belonging to the ship, or by wounding, or endangering the life of any person , by death”.

Article 10  

1. No person shall be held in slavery or servitude. 
2. No person shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour. 
3. For the purposes of this Article the term " forced or compulsory labour " shall not include ¬ 

(a) any work required to be done in the ordinary course of detention imposed according to the provisions of Article 11 or during conditional release from such detention;  

(b) any service of a military character if imposed or, in case of conscientious objectors, subject to their recognition by a law, service exacted instead of compulsory military service;  

(c) any service exacted in case of an emergency or calamity threatening the life or well-being of the inhabitants. 

Article 11  

1. Every person has the right to liberty and security of person. 
2. No person shall be deprived of his liberty save in the following cases when and as provided by law…

Article 22  

1. Any person reaching nubile age is free to marry and to found a family according to the law relating to marriage, applicable to such person under the provisions of this Constitution. 
2. The provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article shall, in the following cases, be applied as follows: 

Article 25  

1. Every person has the right to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade or business. 
2. The exercise of this right may be subject to such formalities, conditions or restrictions as are prescribed by law and relate exclusively to the qualifications usually required for the exercise of any profession orare necessary only in the interests of the security of the Republic or the constitutional order or the public safety or the public order or the public health or the public morals or for the protection of the rights and liberties guaranteed by this Constitution to any person or in the public interest:

Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus 1960 (revised 2013) (PDF)

114 Violation of the Right to Work and Other Labor - Related Rights Article

(1) Whoever denies or limits the right of a citizen to work, the freedom of work, the free choice of vocation or occupation, access to a work place and to duties offered to everyone under the same terms, the right to earnings, or who without a justified reason denies earnings to a worker within the prescribed period of time, social security, retirement or disability rights or who does not register a worker with the bodies of health, retirement and disability insurance, or who does not observe working hours and time off regulated by law, the rights of specific groups of workers to special protection, the rights resulting from unemployment, the rights related to labor, maternity and child care or other labor-related rights stipulated by law, a court decision or collective agreement shall be punished by imprisonment for three months to three years.

(2) The punishment referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be inflicted on those who do not enforce a final court decision to make it possible for a worker to return to his job.

157a Crimes Against Humanity Article

Whoever violates the rules of international law within an extensive or systematic attack against the civilian population and, with knowledge of such an attack, orders the killing of another person, orders the infliction of conditions of life so as to bring about the physical destruction in whole or in part of some civilian population which could lead to its complete extermination, orders trafficking in human beings, in particular of women and children, or the enslavement of a person in any other way so that some or all of the powers originating in property rights are exercised over such person, orders the forceful displacement of persons from areas where they lawfully reside and through expulsion or other measures of coercion, orders that a person deprived of liberty or under supervision be tortured by intentionally inflicting severe bodily or mental harm or suffering, orders that a person be raped or subjected to some other violent sexual act or that a woman who has been impregnated as a result of such violent act be intentionally kept in detention so as to change the ethnic composition of some population, orders the persecution of a person by depriving him or her of the fundamental rights because this person belongs to a particular group or community, orders the arrest, detention or kidnapping of some persons in the name of and with the permission, support or approval of a state or political organization and subsequently does not admit that these persons have been deprived of their liberty or withholds information about the fate of such persons or the place where they are kept, or orders within an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination of one racial group over another racial group or groups that an inhumane act described in this Article be committed or an act similar to any of these offenses so as to maintain such a regime (the crime of apartheid), or whoever commits any of the foregoing offenses shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than five years or by a life sentence.

158 War Crimes Against the Civilian Population Article

(1) Whoever violates the rules of international law in time of war, armed conflict or occupation and orders an attack against the civilian population, settlements, individual civilians or those hors de combat resulting in death, severe bodily harm or serious damage to people's health, orders an indiscriminate attack harming the civilian population, orders the killing, torturing or inhuman treatment of civilians, orders civilians to be subjected to biological, medical or other scientific experiments, their tissues or organs taken for transplantation, orders civilians to be subjected to great suffering impairing the integrity of their bodies or health, or orders their resettlement, displacement or forceful loss of ethnic identity or conversion to another religion, orders rape, sexual oppression, forced prostitution, pregnancy or sterilization or other sexual abuse, orders measures of intimidation or terror, hostage taking, collective punishment, unlawful deportations to concentration camps or illegal detention, deprives people of the rights to a just and unbiased trial, forces them to serve in hostile armed forces or in the information services or administration of a hostile power, subjects them to forced labor, starvation, confiscates property or orders that the population’s property be plundered or illegally and wantonly destroyed or its large-scale appropriation where there is no justification by military needs, or imposes illegal and disproportionately large contributions and requisitions, or decreases the value of the domestic currency or unlawfully issues it, or orders an attack against persons, equipment, materials, units or vehicles involved in humanitarian aid or a peace mission pursuant to the Charter of the United Nations, or orders that the rights and actions of the citizens of a hostile country be prohibited, suspended or pronounced unlawful in court proceedings, or injures personal dignity or orders civilians and other protected persons to be used to shield certain places, areas or military forces from military operations, or orders the recruitment of children under fifteen years of age for the national armed forces or their active participation in hostilities, or whoever commits any of the foregoing acts shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than five years or by long-term imprisonment.

(2) The same punishment as referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be imposed on whoever violates the rules of international law in time of war, armed conflict or occupation by ordering an attack against objects protected by international law, against works or powerful installations such as dams, dykes and nuclear power plants, indiscriminate attacks against civilian objects protected by international law, against undefended places and demilitarized zones or orders an attack which results in an extensive and long-lasting damage to the environment and may impair the population’s health or survival, or whoever commits any of the foregoing acts.

(3) Whoever, as an occupying power, violates the rules of international law, in time of war, armed conflict or occupation, orders or carries out the resettlement of parts of the civilian population of the occupying power to an occupied territory shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than five years.

175 Trafficking in Human Beings and Slavery

(1) Whoever, in violation of the rules of international law, uses force or threatens to use force or by fraud, kidnapping, abuse of position or authority solicits purchases, sells, hands over, transports, transfers, encourages or mediates in the buying, selling or handing over of another person or who conceals or receives a person in order to establish slavery or a similar relationship, forced labor or servitude, sexual abuse or illegal transplantation of parts of a human body, or who keeps a person in slavery or in a similar relationship shall be punished by imprisonment for one to ten years.

(2) If the criminal offense referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article is committed against a child or a juvenile, the perpetrator shall be punished by imprisonment for three to fifteen years.

(3) If the criminal offense referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article is committed while the perpetrator is a member of a group or a criminal organization, if it is committed against a larger number of persons or has caused the death of one or more persons, the perpetrator shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than five years or by a life sentence.

(4) Whoever procures or makes functional the means, removes obstacles, creates a plan or makes arrangements with others, or undertakes some other action in order to create the conditions enabling the direct perpetration of the criminal offense referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be punished by imprisonment for one to five years.

(5) Whoever seizes or destroys an identification card, a passport or some other document of identification in the perpetration of a criminal offense referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article shall be punished by imprisonment for three months to five years.

(6) Whoever takes advantage of or enables another person to take advantage of the sexual services of a person that he knows to be a victim of trafficking in human beings or who for some other unlawful purpose takes advantage of this person shall be punished by imprisonment for one to five years.

(7) Whether or not a person has acceded to forced labor or servitude, sexual abuse, slavery, to a relationship similar to slavery or to unlawful transplantation of the parts of his or her body is of no relevance for the existence of the criminal offense referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article.

207 Allowing a Contract of an Illicit Marriage Article

An official person who, in the discharge of his official duty, assists in the contracting of a marriage despite knowing of the existence of an impediment to marriage shall be punished by a fine or by imprisonment not exceeding three years.

Cypriot Criminal Code 1998 (revised 2003) (PDF)

Article 2  

"Trafficking" means the recruitment, hiring, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt or harboring or receipt persons, including exchange or transfer of control and / or power over that person, by threats or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deceit, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability or offer or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits or emoluments for ensuring the person having possession of consent power over another, in order to exploit this term   

Article 6  

Any person who recruits, hires, transports, distributes, transmits, receives or hides an adult person, or houses or receives, exchanges or transfers control or power over that person, for the purpose of exploitation, through: (a) threats, and / or (b) use of force or other forms of coercion, and / or (c) abduction, and / or d) deceit or fraud, or misrepresentation, and / or (e) abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability, such nature that the person has no real acceptable alternative but to submit to the abuse, and / or and (f) giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person and / or (g) administration of any drug or other substance order to neutralize or drugged strength or of the resistance, and / or (h) virtual debt, is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, is liable to imprisonment not exceeding ten years 

Article 8 (Labour exploitation)  

Whoever trades person to operate the labor or services, submit to forced work or services, or any form of slavery or practices similar or servitude, or for the account of the account another person and the work done isobvious difference with face working conditions that performs the same or similar work through:  

(a) threats, and / or  

(b) use of force or other forms of coercion, and / or  

(c) abduction, and / or  

(d) intent or fraud or misrepresentation, and / or  

(e) abuse of power or capacity for exploitation vulnerability, and / or  

(f) giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person and / or  

(g) virtual debt,  

is guilty of a felony, and upon conviction, subject to imprisonment not exceeding six years and if that that person is a child, to imprisonment not exceeding ten years. 

Article 11 

Whoever sells a child for sexual exploitation or prostitution is guilty of a felony and, if conviction, be liable to imprisonment not exceeding twenty years" Article 17 " 17. Anyone may reasonably assume that work uses or any victim services are object of offenses referred to in this Part, is guilty of an offense and on conviction is subject to imprisonment not exceeding three years or to a fine not exceeding fifteen thousand euros or to both such penalties: Provided that where the victim is a child, person convicted of an offense under this section, subject to imprisonment not exceeding ten years or to a fine not exceeding eighty thousand euro or to both such sentences. 

Section 14 

(1) The free consent of the persons intending to contract a marriage is required before contracting a marriage. 

(2) There is no free consent of the persons intending to 

contract a marriage as provided in clause (1) of this section, if any one of them - 

Voidable marriages 

(a) Is a person incompetent of contracting a marriage within the context of clause (3) of this section, or 

(b) He/she under misconception about the identity of the other person, or 

(c) He/she has been forced to contract a marriage under threat, as specified in clause (4) of this section. 

(3) For the purposes of paragraph (a) of clause (2) of this section a person incapable to contract a marriage is a person who - 

(a) Subject to the provisions of section 16, is under eighteen years of age, or 

(b) Is incompetent at the time of the marriage ceremony to comprehend and appreciate his/her act in order to consent to the marriage, because of mental disorder or incompetence or due to addiction to addictive substances. 

(4) For the purposes of paragraph (c) of clause (2) a threat is deemed to be - 

(a) Any action, act or omission which may bring about fear to an average reasonable human being, that he/she may be exposed to a direct and significant risk of his/her life, honour, freedom, bodily integrity, or property or that of the members of his/her family, and because of such fear he/she consents to the marriage. 

(b) Any legal, illegal immoral action or act or declaration which brings about fear to an average reasonable person and the consent for marriage is obtained by or both persons because of this reason. 

Section 15 

(1) When one or both persons are under eighteen years of age, a marriage shall be permitted, if – 

(a) They are both over sixteen years of age,  

(b) the persons acting as their guardians consent in writing,  

(c) there are serious grounds justifying the marriage  

(2) When –  

(a) The guardians unjustifiably so do not consent, as provided in paragraph  

(b) of clause (1) above, or (b) there is no guardian to consent, the District Court where the person intending to contract a marriage resides, may permit the marriage. 

Marriage Law 2003

Article 6. Human trafficking

Whoever recruits, recruits, transfers, distributes, transfers, fosters or receives an adult, houses or receives, exchanges or transfers control or even power over that person, for the purpose of exploiting him, through:

(a) threats, and / or

(b) the use of force or other forms of coercion, and / or

(c) abduction, and / or

(d) deceit or fraud, or deception, and / or

(e) abuse of power or a vulnerable position of such a nature that the person in question has no other acceptable option but to submit to the abuse, and / or

(f) providing or receiving payments or benefits to secure the consent of the person exercising control over another person, and / or

(g) administering any drug or other substance intended to anesthetize or neutralize its potency or resistance, and / or

(h) fictitious debt,

is guilty of a felony and, if convicted, is subject to imprisonment of not more than twenty-five years.

Article 7. Trafficking and exploitation of human organs

(1) Whoever trades a person for the purpose of exploiting or selling his vital organs, through:

(a) threats, and / or

(b) the use of force or other forms of coercion, and / or

(c) abduction, and / or

(d) deceit or fraud or deception, and / or

(e) abuse of power or a vulnerable position of such a nature that the person in question has no other acceptable option but to submit to the abuse, and / or

(f) providing or receiving payments or benefits to secure the consent of the person exercising control over another person, and / or

(g) the administration of any drug or other substance intended to anesthetize or neutralize its strength or resistance, and / or

(h) fictitious debt,

is guilty of a felony and, if convicted, is subject to life imprisonment.

(2) Whoever, during the commission of the offense provided for in subsection (1), either due to culpable negligence or gross negligence, endangers the life of the victim or causes the death of the victim is guilty of a felony, and, in case of conviction , is subject to life imprisonment.

Article 8. Exploitation of persons at work

Whoever trades a person for the purpose of exploiting his work or services, submits him to forced labor or services, or to any form of slavery or similar practice or servitude, on his behalf or on behalf of another person and in the work performed there is an obvious difference. with the working conditions of a person performing the same or similar work through:

(a) threats, and / or

(b) the use of force or other forms of coercion, and / or

(c) abduction, and / or

(d) deceit or fraud or deception, and / or

(e) abuse of power or capacity to exploit a vulnerable position, and / or

(f) providing or receiving payments or benefits to secure the consent of the person exercising control over another person, and / or

(g) fictitious debt,

is guilty of a criminal offense and, if convicted, is subject to imprisonment of not more than fifteen years and, if the child in question is a child, to life imprisonment

Article 9. Sexual exploitation of adults

Anyone who trades an adult for the purpose of sexual exploitation or prostitution, through:

(a) threats, and / or

(b) the use of force or other forms of coercion, and / or

(c) abduction, and / or

(d) deceit or fraud or deception; and / or

(e) abuse of power or vulnerability, and / or

(f) providing or receiving payments or benefits to secure the consent of the person exercising control over another person, and / or

(g) fictitious debt,

is guilty of a felony and, if convicted, is subject to imprisonment of not more than twenty-five years.

Article 10. Child trafficking

Whoever recruits, transfers, transfers, fosters or receives a child, exchanges or transfers control over that child, for the purpose of exploitation, is guilty of a felony and, in case of conviction, is subject to life imprisonment.

Article 17A. Criminalization of the demand, collection or use of sexual exploitation services

Subject to the provisions of this Law, anyone who solicits or collects or uses work or any services of a victim who are sexually exploited, as interpreted in Article 2 of this Law, is guilty of an offense and, if convicted, is subject to imprisonment. does not exceed ten (10) years or in a fine not exceeding fifty thousand euros (€ 50,000) or in both of these penalties:

It is understood that, if the victim is a child, a person convicted of an offense under the provisions of this article is subject to a life sentence or a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand euros (€ 100,000) or both.

ANTI-TRAFFICKING LAW 2019 (PDF)