Newsletter

1. European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) 

The ECtHR is a judicial body of the Council of Europe whose main function is to monitor the compliance of States parties with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). The ECtHR is responsible for analyzing complaints from individuals, groups of individuals or States for human rights violations committed by States that have accepted the ECtHR’s jurisdiction.

A) ECtHR Rules Against Russia For Failing to Protect 5 Women From Human Trafficking and Servitude

– On December 10, 2024, the ECtHR found that Russia violated Articles 4 (prohibition of slavery and forced labor) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the ECHR for failing to protect five Central Asian women from trafficking and servitude.

Source: Flickr. Human trafficking protest. Date: 2019. Link to the license: here.

The applicants –F.M., A.M., N.I., G.N., and B.K., three Kazakh and two Uzbek nationals– were trafficked to Moscow between 2002 and 2016 and subjected to brutal exploitation in stores owned by Russian nationals. The women, some trafficked while they were still minors, endured these conditions for periods ranging from several months to 10 years. As soon as they arrived in Russia, they were deprived of their identity cards, denied regularized migrant status, and forced into hard labor for long hours (usually between 6 a.m. and 2 a.m.) without an employment contract. They were subjected to physical and sexual violence, including rape by male coworkers and store owners, leading to pregnancies, miscarriages, and lasting trauma. The women were forbidden to leave the stores, given only rotten food, forced to drink alcohol, forced to sleep on the floor, and constantly monitored under threat of violence. Attempts to escape were thwarted by local police, often bribed by the traffickers, who returned the women to their exploiters. They were also forbidden to talk to each other, speak to customers, and basically had no contact with their families. Efforts by NGOs and civil society to secure their release were largely unsuccessful, with the victims ultimately freed only after significant media pressure.

The ECtHR determined that Russia had failed to fulfill its obligations under Article 4 of the ECHR on three grounds, namely the lack of an adequate legislative framework to prohibit and prevent trafficking, forced labor, and servitude and to protect its victims; the failure to take operational measures to protect the applicants; and the failure to conduct an effective investigation. It recalled that human trafficking undermines the dignity and fundamental rights of the victims and that its prohibition constitutes a fundamental value in democratic societies. According to the ECtHR’s decision, the victims in the case, who were poor and had been recruited expecting acceptable conditions and payment, were subjected to cross-border human trafficking and servitude. In particular, the ECtHR determined that since 2010, there were credible suspicions that the victims were being trafficked by the Russian shop owners, which meant that the State had an obligation to take action to halt that situation, one that Russia failed to comply with. Furthermore, the ECtHR considered that Russian criminal law did not effectively penalize trafficking in human beings, forced labor, and servitude, nor did it adequately protect victims of these crimes. Likewise, it noted that the State had not taken operational measures to remove the victims from trafficking, although their situation had been repeatedly brought to the attention of the authorities. In addition, the ECtHR held that, between 2010 and 2021, the Russian authorities only conducted minimal “pre-investigation inquiries”, refusing to open criminal proceedings and to carry out an independent and impartial investigation. The authorities had also failed to cooperate with civil society representatives aiding the victims. Consistent allegations of corruption of the local police had likewise been dismissed without a criminal investigation being conducted. The ECtHR also found a violation of Article 14 of the ECHR. It considered that the State’s inaction vis-à-vis its obligations emerging from Article 4 of the ECHR had amounted to repeatedly condoning trafficking, labor exploitation, and related gender-based violence and had reflected a discriminatory attitude towards the applicants as women who were foreign workers with an irregular immigration status. The judgment can be found here and the press release here.