Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Abolishing Slavery and its Contemporary Forms

Core International Law against Slavery
9
28. The list of aggravating circumstances, of abuses of fundamental rights which accompany sla-
very and related abuses, is almost endless. In the harshest cases it includes depriving individuals
of their identity (by giving them a new name, often one associated with a different religion or eth-
nic identity), obliging them to speak a new language, and forcing them to change their religion or
subjecting them to coercion in violation of article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights.
32
Some extreme cases also involve preventing individuals from exercising their
right to marry and to establish a family,
33
notably when the victims are women who are forced to
act as the mistresses or concubines of the men who control them, or are forced to remain in pros-
titution. Virtually all cases involve violations of the victims’ freedom of expression, their right to
receive and impart information, their right of peaceful assembly and their freedom of association.
29. In some societies slaves have been prevented from owning or inheriting property. One of the
legacies of slavery still affecting people categorized as “slaves” in one country where slavery has
been formally abolished on several occasions is that, on the death of former slaves, the families of
their former owners still intervene to take possession of their property – sometimes with the author-
ity of the courts – thus preventing the heirs of former slaves from inheriting.
34
Such practices vio-
late article 17 of the Universal Declaration as well as article 26 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights. Former slaves, their descendants or others regarded socially as having
slave status are subjected to a wide range of discriminatory practices in many societies.
32 
Ibid., art. 18(2): “No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a
religion or beliefs of his choice.”
33
Ibid., art. 23. 
34
Report of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery on its eighteenth session, United Nations
document E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/30 (1993), para. 43.

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