Slavery in international law

Protection from slavery is reiterated in the Slavery Convention.[2] This is affected by the Optional Protocol to the Abolition of Slavery[3] and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).[4] The ICCPR, governed by the Human Rights Committee,[5] is responsible for internationally monitoring present conditions of slavery.

Abolitionism has its roots in the 1807 Abolition of Slavery Act of Great Britain. Many academics in the field perceive this as the beginning of the end of the traditional form of slavery: chattel slavery. In the 19th century, Britain controlled the majority of the world through its colonies. Consequently, in passing this law to abolish slavery, the British Parliament abolished slavery in the vast majority of its colonies.

Customarily, freedoms from slavery can also be found prior to the 19th century under the phrase "freedom from oppression and tyranny." Because slavery is a condition of complete and total submission of one person to another, often with the exertion of force or power of the owner over the submissive, the phrase "freedom from oppression and tyranny" accurately encompasses the right to freedom from slavery.

The United States Declaration of Independence,[6] the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,[7] the African Charter of Human Rights,[8] and the Constitution of South Africa[9] all present the idea that human beings should be free from tyranny and oppression. Although slavery continued to persist in some countries after these documents were written – namely, the United States, in which slavery continued until the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 – the underlying norm of this right is present. Through customary practice and the abolition of slavery, the international community has adopted the right of each person to be free from slavery.

The first large-scale move to abolish slavery by the international community came in 1926 with the Slavery Convention and again in 1957 when the Supplementary Convention came into power. The 1926 Slavery Convention provides the first international definition of slavery as:

"the status or condition of a person over whom any or all the powers attaching to the right ownership are exercised...[and] included all acts involved in the capture, acquisition, or disposal of a person with intent to reduce him to slavery; acts involved in the acquisition of a slave with a view to selling or exchanging him; all acts of disposal by sale or exchange of a slave acquired with a view to being sold or exchanged, and in general, every act of trade or transport in slaves."[10]

Although this document provides the concrete definition of slavery, its definition is limited in the types of slavery it includes. Instead, it is descriptive of chattel slavery, most commonly understood as the plantation slavery in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries, even though chattel slavery was significantly more widespread and was not limited to one country alone. It is for this reason that the 1956 Supplementary Convention on Slavery was signed. It gives a more comprehensive definition of slavery to include debt bondage, serfdom, or any practice where a woman is promised or given into marriage on payment of money and is without the right to refuse the marriage, the husband of a woman has the right to transfer her to another person, a woman is liable to be inherited by another upon the death of her husband, or any practice where a child under 18 years of ages is exploited for his or her labour.[11] The 1956 Supplementary Convention on Slavery came into force on April 30, 1957 and of 2002 there were 97 states partied to the convention.

The Slavery Convention and its supplementary document are beneficial in providing an international definition of slavery; however, there is no significant enforcement behind these documents. Both are declarations made by the collaboration of the international community, and agreements that signatories would modify their national laws in accordance with the convention, with the assistance of the United Nations if necessary; however, there are no consequences outlined in either document that provide incentive for signatories to abide by the convention

The Human Rights Committee is governed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which entered into force on March 23, 1976. Article 8 of this Covenant states: “No one shall be held in slavery; slavery and the slave trade in all their forms shall be prohibited. No one shall be held in servitude. No one shall be required to perform force or compulsory labour."[4] The ICCPR outlines, in part IV, the obligations of states to uphold the freedom from slavery. All states are required to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights of the Covenant are being implemented. A state’s initial report must be within one year of acceding the Covenant and after this, whenever the committee requests a report (usually every four years).[4] In addition to the submission of reports, article 41 of the Covenant makes it possible for the Committee to consider inter-state complaints, and furthermore, the First Optional Protocol to the Covenant give the Committee the capacity investigate individual complaints with regards to violations of the Covenant by state parties.[12]

• Slave Trade Acts, with a list of international, U.K., and U.S. slavery laws
• Slavery at common law