The Antislavery in Domestic Legislation and Forced Marriage in Domestic Legislation databases use a range of specialist terms, drawn primarily from international law. Key terminology used in the databases is defined below.
Slavery
…the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.
Article 1(1), 1926 Slavery Convention
In cases of slavery, the exercise of “the powers attaching to the right of ownership” should be understood as constituting control over a person in such a way as to significantly deprive that person of his or her individual liberty, with the intent of exploitation through the use, management, profit, transfer or disposal of that person. Usually this exercise will be supported by and obtained through means such as violent force, deception and/or coercion.
Guideline 2, The Bellagio-Harvard Guidelines on the Legal Parameters of Slavery
Forced or compulsory labour
As defined in the 1930 Forced Labour Convention, forced labour is understood as comprised of three core elements: (1) work or service; (2) menace of penalty; and (3) involuntariness. However, work or service exacted in accordance with the prescried exceptions is understood not to constitute forced labour even if both menace of penalty and involuntariness exist in these circumstances.
1. For the purposes of this Convention the term forced or compulsory labour shall mean all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.
2. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this Convention, the term forced or compulsory labour shall not include–
(a) any work or service exacted in virtue of compulsory military service laws for work of a purely military character;
(b) any work or service which forms part of the normal civic obligations of the citizens of a fully self-governing country;
(c) any work or service exacted from any person as a consequence of a conviction in a court of law, provided that the said work or service is carried out under the supervision and control of a public authority and that the said person is not hired to or placed at the disposal of private individuals, companies or associations;
(d) any work or service exacted in cases of emergency, that is to say, in the event of war or of a calamity or threatened calamity, such as fire, flood, famine, earthquake, violent epidemic or epizootic diseases, invasion by animal, insect or vegetable pests, and in general any circumstance that would endanger the existence or the well-being of the whole or part of the population;
(e) minor communal services of a kind which, being performed by the members of the community in the direct interest of the said community, can therefore be considered as normal civic obligations incumbent upon the members of the community, provided that the members of the community or their direct representatives shall have the right to be consulted in regard to the need for such services.
Article 2, 1930 Forced Labour Convention
Institutions and practices similar to slavery
Understood to include the practices identified and defined in the 1956 Supplementary Convention, namely: (1) debt bondage; (2) serfdom; (3) servile matrimonial transactions; and (4) delivery of children by their parents or guardians for exploitation.
a. Debt bondage, that is to say, the status or condition arising from a pledge by a debtor of his personal services or of those of a person under his control as security for a debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied towards the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined;
b. Serfdom, that is to say, the condition or status of a tenant who is by law, custom or agreement bound to live and labour on land belonging to another person and to render some determinate service to such other person, whether for reward or not, and is not free to change his status;
c. Any institution or practice whereby:
i. A woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment of a consideration in money or in kind to her parents, guardian, family or any other person or group; or
ii. The husband of a woman, his family, or his clan, has the right to transfer her to another person for value received or otherwise; or
iii. A woman on the death of her husband is liable to be inherited by another person;
d. Any institution or practice whereby a child or young person under the age of 18 years, is delivered by either or both of his natural parents or by his guardian to another person, whether for reward or not, with a view to the exploitation of the child or young person or of his labour.
Child marriage
Understood in line with the position of UN OHCHR as a marriage involving at least one party under the age of eighteen years, although in some domestic systems may engage a different age of majority (in line with the definition of childhood set out in the CRC).
Child marriage is any marriage where at least one of the parties is under 18 years of age.
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.
Article 1, 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
Trafficking in persons
Understood in line with the 2000 Palermo Protocol as constituted of three core elements: (1) the commission of a specified act; (2) through the use of coercive means; and (3) for the purpose of exploitation. Trafficking in children is understood to be constituted by only the act (1) and purpose (3) and does not require the use of coercive means (2). Also referred to as trafficking in human beings and human trafficking.
…the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs
Servitude
Although not explicitly defined in international law, serivutde has been understood by regional human rights courts (both the European Court of Human Rights and Inter-American Court of Human Rights) as related to the concepts of slavery and forced labour.
With regard to the concept of ‘servitude’, the Court has held that what is prohibited is a ‘particularly serious form of denial of freedom’. The concept of ‘servitude’ entails an obligation, under coercion, to provide one’s services, and is linked with the concept of ‘slavery’.
ECHR, M and Others v Italy and Bulgaria (2012)
…servitude corresponds to a special type of forced or compulsory labour or, in other words, ‘aggravated’ forced or compulsory labour.
ECHR, CN and V v France (2013)
…the obligation to perform work for others, imposed by coercion, and the obligation to live on the property of another person, without the possibility of changing that condition.
IACHR, Case of the Hacienda Brasil Verde Workers v Brazil (2016)
Forced marriage
Forced marriage is a marriage in which one and/or both parties have not personally expressed their full and free consent to the union. A child marriage is considered to be a form of forced marriage, given that one and/or both parties have not expressed full, free and informed consent.