Article 4 – Prohibition of slavery

What does this right mean?

Slavery is the most extreme form of forced labour and dehumanisation. This system makes the enslaved, by law, literally property of other people or live in comparable situations. It means holding people against their will AND force them to work and do other things for their owners, often under bad circumstances. Slave trade means the trading of humans as objects or property.

Servitude or subservience are forms of unfreedom in which people are forced to work and therefore have to work for others against their will. They are not literally someone's property under this system, but they are unfree.

Article 4 prohibits all these practices under all circumstances, including wars and emergencies.

Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil.

What is the history of this right?

Classical slavery

Slavery has existed in all kinds of forms in almost all of the history of humanity, on just about every continent. In it, people were often legally property of other people, generation after generation. In modern times, many European countries, including the Netherlands, had violently established colonies, in which slavery existed formally and often at a large scale. There, people were taken prisoner, traded and enslaved. They had to work for their owners, often under inhuman circumstances. Especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such practices were tied to beliefs of alleged superiority and inferiority of various ‘races’.

Servitude or subservience

Servitude has existed in many variants too. The feudal system in the European Medieval period was an example of this. Farmers were tied to a landowner, to whom they had to surrender their entire harvests (or part of it). Although this was abolished by law in most countries over time, there are still forms of unfree working circumstances in practice today.

International prohibition

Over the course of the 19th century, slavery was abolished in most Western countries and their then colonies, in part because of resistance by the enslaved themselves against the inhuman practices. The Netherlands was one of the very last countries to do so. Various countries also signed treaties to counteract slavery and to internationally prohibit slave trade. Such prohibitions did not mean that slavery was actually abolished everywhere in practice.

Slavery during wars

During the Second World War, Jews and other persecuted groups were factually used as slaves. Millions of people were forced to work, in Europe, Asia and elsewhere. The forced labour and the violation of basic human rights in labour and concentration camps were a direct reason for the drafting of Article 4. States came to the conclusion that the concept of slavery develops itself and that this results in the existence of new forms of slavery which have to be fought.

Where and how is this right documented?

Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights institutes a prohibition on slavery and forced labour.

In Article 5 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, a prohibition on forced labour, slavery and human trafficking is documented as well.

Article 8 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has a prohibition on slavery and slave trade too. It also lists which forms of forced labour are not allowed.

Within the International Labour Organisation of the United Nations, which the Netherlands is a member of as well, multiple treaties which prohibit forced labour have been adopted.

How up to date is this human right?

The concept of slavery changes and we now no longer speak of slaves, but of enslaved. You might think the number of enslaved people is going down, but it is actually increasing. In 2023, for instance, there were approximately 50 million people who were often subjected to forced labour, sexual exploitation, forced marriages and forced containment. 50 million slaves in the new meaning of slavery, possibly more than ever before in history.

Modern slavery

One example of modern slavery was the Soccer World Cup in Qatar in 2022. Migrant workers were forced to work on the construction of the enormous soccer stadiums under bad circumstances. They had to work long hours in the heat, in an unsafe work environment, and were barely paid. On top of that, many of them had to hand over their passports, which made it difficult for them to leave. Because of these bad circumstances, many migrant workers died.

Sexual exploitation

Sexual exploitation is common too, in the Netherlands as well. Women (and sometimes men) are trafficked against their will with the goal to carry out sexual acts. They are often also held against their will and are not allowed to have any contact with their social environments anymore.