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

D. Other Instruments Prohibiting Slavery
23. The prohibitions set out in the Slavery Convention and the Supplementary Convention were
given significant legal support by the International Bill of Human Rights.
25
The Universal Decla-
ration of Human Rights states that “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the
slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms” (art. 4).
26
The International Covenant on Eco-
nomic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes the right to work “which includes the right of every-
one to the opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or accepts” (art. 6(1)).
In articles 5, 7, and 8 the Covenant further sets certain conditions and rights that must be upheld
24
The question of whether economic imperatives constitute a form of “force” is often debated, particularly in re-
lation to traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution. For a discussion of this debate see the section on Forced Pros-
titution, infra.
25
The International Bill of Human Rights consists of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the Option-
al Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and the Second Optional Protocol to the Inter-
national Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.
26
Neither the Universal Declaration nor subsequent instruments offer a precise definition of “servitude”. During
discussions in the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly about the draft Universal Declaration, Pro-
fessor Cassin (France) observed that “by the use of the word ‘servitude’ it was intended to cover certain forms of slavery,
such as that imposed on prisoners of war by the Nazis, and the traffic in women and children”, Ad Hoc Committee on
Slavery, Development of article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations document E/AC.33/5.
On the difference between “slavery” and “servitude” in the European Convention on Human Rights, one commentary
observes: “The status or condition of servitude does not involve ownership and differs from slavery on that count”, D.J.
Harris, M. O’Boyle and C. Warbrick, Law of the European Convention on Human Rights, 1995, p. 91. See also infra
note 111 on the definition of servitude in the Trafficking Protocol.

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