Applying the definition of torture to the acts of non-state actors: The case of trafficking in human beings

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 36, Issue 1, 2014, Pages 210-241

  McGregor, Lorna ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HUMAN RIGHTS; INTERNATIONAL LAW; TRAFFICKING;

EID: 84893603428     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2014.0000     Document Type: Article

References (165)

1. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted 10 Dec. 1984, G.A. Res. 39/46, U.N. GAOR, 39th Sess., art. 1, U.N. Doc. A/39/51 (1985), 1465 U.N.T.S. 85 (entered into force 26 June 1987).
2. Robert McCorquodale & Rebecca La Forgia, Taking off the Blindfolds: Torture by Non-State Actors, 1 Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 189, 217-18 (2001).
3. Andrew Clapham, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors 342-46 (2006).
4. The literature in this area is vast and diverse. Hilary Charlesworth & Christine Chinkin, The Boundar ies of International Law: A Feminist Analysis 234-35 (2000).
5. Alice Edwards, The "Feminizing" of Torture under International Human Rights Law, 19 Leiden J. Int'l L. 349, 352-58 (2006).
6. Rhonda Copelon, Recognizing the Egregious in the Everyday: Domestic Violence as Torture, 25 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 291, 296 (1994).
7. Edwards, supra note 3, at 352
8. Copelon, supra note 3, at 297.
9. Edwards, supra note 3, at 355.
10. Copelon, supra note 3, at 295.
11. G.A. Res. 55/25, Annex II, Art. 3(a), A/RES/55/25 (15 Nov. 2000).
12. Council of Europe, Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, art. 4(a), opened for signature, 16 May 2005, (entered into force 1 Feb. 2008).
13. The 2005 Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the first reports in which the Committee dedicates substantial attention to the practice of trafficking. Committee against Torture (CAT), Conclusions and Recommendations of the Committee against Torture: Bosnia and Herzegovina, 21, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/BIH/CO/1 (15 Dec. 2005).
14. CAT, Report of the Committee against Torture, 257, U.N. Doc. A/45/44 (21 June 1990) (Cameroon).
15. CAT, Conclusions and Recommendations of the Committee against Torture: Togo, 140-55, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/TGO/CO/1 (28 July 2006).
16. To take 2011 as an example, see CAT, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Bosnia and Herzegovina, 23, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/BIH/CO/1 (20 Jan. 2011) (violating arts. 2, 4 16).
17. CAT, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Mongolia, 21, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/MNG/CO/1 (20 Jan. 2011) (violating arts. 2, 12, 13, 16).
18. CAT, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Ghana, 21, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/GHA/CO/1 (15 June 2011) (violating arts. 2, 12 16).
19. CAT, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Kuwait, 21, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/KWT/CO/2 (28 June 2011) (raising arts. 2, 4, 16).
20. CAT, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Slovenia, 16, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/SVN/CO/3 (20 June 2011) (raising arts. 2, 4,16).
21. CAT, Provisional Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Yemen, 30, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/YEM/CO/2 (17 Dec. 2009). It previously referred to trafficking within a range of prohibited practices under Articles 1 and 16 in its Concluding Observations on Benin, CAT, Conclusions and Recommendations of the Committee against Torture: Benin, 22, 24, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/BEN/CO/2 (19 Feb. 2008), making it difficult to draw definitive conclusions on the categorization of trafficking.
22. CAT, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Jordan, 22, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/JOR/CO/2 (25 May 2010) (arts. 1, 2, 4, 12, 16).
23. CAT, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Syrian Arab Republic, 28, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/ SYR/CO/1 (25 May 2010) (arts. 1, 2, 4, 12, 16).
24. CAT, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Yemen, 30, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/YEM/CO/2/Rev.1 (25 May 2010) (arts. 1, 2, 12, 16).
25. CAT, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Cambodia, 20, 22, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/KHM/CO/2 (20 Jan. 2011) (arts. 1, 2, 4, 12, 16).
26. CAT, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Ethiopia, 33, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/ETH/CO/1 (20 Jan. 2011) (arts. 1, 2, 12, 16).
27. CAT, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Estonia, 13 U.N. Doc. CAT/C/EST/ CO/5 (17 June 2013) (arts. 1, 2, 4, 10, 12, 13, and 14).
28. Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Manfred Nowak, 56-8, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/7/3 (15 Jan. 2008) [hereinafter Nowak Report].
29. Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia, 51 Eur. H.R. Rep. 1, 252 (7 Jan. 2010).
30. General Assembly, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking, Especially in Women and Children, 93, U.N. Doc. A/64/290 (12 Aug. 2009).
31. Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2011 on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Protecting its Victims and Replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA, 2011 O.J. (L 101/1) 11.
32. Klara Skrivankova, Forced Labour: Understanding and Identifying Labour Exploitation, in Human Trafficking Handbook: Recognising Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery in the UK 27, 51 (Parosha Chandran ed., 2011) [hereinafter Handbook].
33. Vanessa Munro, A Tale of Two Servitudes: Defining and Implementing a Domestic Response to Trafficking of Women for Prostitution in the UK and Australia, 14 Soc. & Leg. S. 91, 94 (2005).
34. As first recognized by the European Court of Human Rights in Case of Ireland v. The United Kingdom, 25 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) at 59 (1978).
35. Nowak Report, supra note 15, 26.
36. Nigel Rodley, Can Armed Opposition Groups Violate Human Rights?, in Human Rights in the Twenty-First Century: A Global Challenge 297, 313 (Kathleen E. Mahoney & Paul Mahoney eds., 1993).
37. Elmi v. Australia, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/22/D/120/1998 (14 May 1999).
38. Ryszard Piotrowicz, The Legal Nature of Trafficking in Human Beings, 4 Intercultural Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 175 (2009).
39. International Law Commission, Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts with Commentaries, Y.B. Int'l L. Comm. Vol. II, Pt. Two 46, art. 7 (2001).
40. Id. art.7 provides that: The conduct of an organ of a State or of a person or entity empowered to exercise elements of the governmental authority shall be considered an act of the State under international law if the organ, person or entity acts in that capacity, even if it exceeds its authority or contravenes instructions.
41. See, e.g., reports by the Committee against Torture raising concerns about alleged complicity of the police and border control in trafficking in human beings, CAT, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Kazakhstan, 31, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/ KAZ/CO/2 (21 Nov. 2008).
42. Anne Gallagher, The International Law of Human Trafficking 227 (2010).
43. Dzemajl v. Yugoslavia, 9.2, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/29/D/161/2000 (2002).
44. Nigel Rodley with Matt Pollard, The Treatment of Prisoners under International Law 89, 92 (3rd ed. 2009).
45. During the drafting process, the United States was particularly intent on the inclusion of the term acquiescence within the definition of torture to underline the duty to prevent torture even if committed by actors other than the state. Economic and Social Council, Questions of the Human Rights of All Persons Subjected to Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, Particularly Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 29, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1314 (19 Dec. 1978).
46. Copelon, supra note 3, at 294.
47. See Piotrowicz, supra note 24, for a general discussion on the limitations of applying international human rights law to trafficking cases due to their principal commission by non-state actors.
48. Inhuman treatment is defined as a component of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, abbreviated as "other ill-treatment."
49. Rodley with Pollard, supra note 30, at 87, 99.
50. See, e.g., Ilascu v. Moldova and Russia, 40 Eur. H.R. Rep. 46, 426 (8 July 2004).
51. Rodley with Pollard, supra note 30, at 99.
52. The European Court often requires the demonstration of a purpose although not consistently.
53. Salman v. Turkey, 34 Eur. H.R. Rep. 17, 114 (27 June 2000).
54. Manfred Nowak & Elizabeth McArthur, The United Nations Convention against Torture: A Commentary 39 (2008).
55. Clare McGlynn, Rape, Torture and the European Convention on Human Rights, 58 Int'l & Comp. L. Q. 565, 568 (2009).
56. Copelon, supra note 3, at 322.
57. Nowak Report, supra note 15, 56.
58. Case of González et al. v. Mexico, Judgment, Inter-Am. Ct. Hum. Rts. (ser. C) No. 205, 398-402 (16 Nov. 2009) [hereinafter Cotton Field] (finding a violation of Article 1(1) on discrimination read together with Articles 4(1), 5(1), 5(2), 7(1)).
59. Opuz v. Turkey, 50 Eur. H.R. Rep. 28, 179, 200 (9 June 2009) (finding a violation of Article 14 read together with Article 3, although ruling out a discriminatory intent).
60. J. Herman Burgers & Hans Danelius, The United Nations Convention against Torture: A Handbook on The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 118 (1988).
61. Rodley with Pollard, supra note 30, at 88.
62. Burgers & Danelius, supra note 42, at 118.
63. Nowak & McArthur, supra note 39, at 39.
64. But cf. Burgers & Danelius, supra note 42, at 119.
65. Burgers & Danelius, supra note 42, at 119.
66. Opuz, supra note 41, 155.
67. Id. 161.
68. Concurring Opinion of Judge Cecilia Medina Quiroga in Cotton Field, supra note 41, 7.
69. McGlynn, supra note 40, at 588.
70. Cotton Field, supra note 41, 2.
71. Copelon, supra note 3, at 342.
72. Burgers & Danelius, supra note 42, at 45.
73. CAT, General Comment No. 2: Implementation of Article 2 by States Parties, 18, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/GC/2 (24 Jan. 2008).
74. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children: Mission to Argentina, 50, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/17/35/Add.4 (24 May 2011).
75. Jessica Elliott, (Mis)Identification of Victims of Trafficking: The Case of R v. O, 21 Int'l J. Refugee L. 727, 732 (2009) (citing Home Office/Scottish Government, UK Action Plan on Tac kling Human Trafficking 48 (2007)).
76. Parosha Chandran, The Identification of Victims of Trafficking, in Handbook, supra note 19, at 45-6.
77. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, at 6, U.N. Doc. E/2002/68/Add.1 (20 May 2002).
78. UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Especially in Women and Children, Draft Basic Principles on the Right for an Effective Remedy for Trafficked Persons, Annex I, 3, 6(a), U.N. Doc. A/HRC/17/35 (13 Apr. 2011) (although notably these Principles are more focused on access to justice for the purpose of obtaining reparation rather than triggering the duty to take operational measures specifically).
79. Rantsev, supra note 16, 296.
80. See also Opinion No. 6/2010 of the Group of Experts on Trafficking in Human Beings of the European Commission, 20 Int'l J. Refugee L. 673, 674 (2010).
81. Janie Chuang, Rescuing Trafficking from Ideological Capture: Prostitution Reform and Anti-Trafficking Law and Policy, 158 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1655, 1666-8 (2010).
82. Rantsev, supra note 16, 296-97.
83. Id. 298.
84. Id. 295.
85. Id. 294.
86. Cotton Field, supra note 41, 242, 279-83, Concurring Opinion of Judge Diego Garcia-Sayan, 11.
87. Id. 280.
88. Id. 284.
89. Rantsev, supra note 16, 294.
90. Anne Gallagher, Human Rights and Human Trafficking: A Reflection on the Influence and Evolution of the U.S. Trafficking in Persons Reports, in From Human Rights to Human Tra fficking: Refra ming Contemporar y Slavery 172, 190 (Alison Brysk & Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick eds., 2012).
91. See US State Dep't, Trafficking in Persons Report (2012).
92. Id. at 179+181.
93. Gallagher, Human Rights and Human Trafficking, supra note 68, at 184.
94. Anna Dorevitch & Michelle Foster, Obstacles on the Road to Protect: Assessing the Treatment of Sex-Trafficking Victims under Australia's Migration and Refugee Law, 9 Melbourne J. Int'l L. 1, 22-24 (2008).
95. Gallagher, Human Rights and Human Trafficking, supra note 68, at 188.
96. James Crawford, The International Law Commission Articles on State Responsibility: Introduction, Text and Commentaries 272 (2005).
97. Rantsev, supra note 16, 207.
98. Id. 207.
99. Id. 305.
100. Id. 305.
101. Id. 307.
102. Skrivankova supra note 19, at 55.
103. Rodley with Pollard, supra note 30.
104. Skrivankova, supra note 19, at 55.
105. Miguel Castro-Castro Prison v. Peru, Judgment, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No. 160, 306 (25 Nov. 2006).
106. Alice Edwards, Traffic in Human Beings: At the Intersection of Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Asylum/Migration and Labor 36 Denv. J. Int'l L. & Pol'y 9, 45-46 (2007) (discussing the limited focus on trafficking to date as an "anti-prostitution instrument").
107. Grace Chang and Kathleen Kim, Reconceptualizing Approaches to Human Trafficking: New Directions and Perspectives from the Field(s), 3 Stan. J.C.R. & C.L. 317, 320-23 (2007) (critiquing US enforcement agencies purported focus on trafficking of sex workers)
108. Munro, supra note 19, at 92.
109. Skrivankova, supra note 19, at 49.
110. Burgers & Danelius, supra note 42.
111. Nowak Report, supra note 15, 56.
112. Hernan Reyes, The Worst Scars are in the Mind: Psychological Torture, 89 Int'l Rev. Red Cross 591 (2007).
113. Id. at 612.
114. Id. at 601. Examples of this approach include, Estrella v. Uruguay, Hum. Rts. Comm., U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/OP/2 (1990), 8.3.
115. Akkoc v. Turkey, 2000-X Eur. Ct. H.R. 389, 116.
116. Case of Tibi v. Ecuador, Judgment, Inter-Am Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No. 114, 146 (7 Sep. 2004).
117. Reyes, supra note 85, at 602.
118. Gäfgen v. Germany, 52 Eur. H.R. Rep. 1, 101-08 (1 June 2010).
119. See, e.g., Madhoui v. Algeria, 7.4, Hum. Rts. Comm., U.N. Doc. CCPR/ C/94/D/1495/2006 (1 Dec. 2008).
120. Alwani v. Libya, 6.5, Hum. Rts. Comm., U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/90/D/1295/2004 (29 Aug. 2007).
121. Rantsev, supra note 16, 279.
122. James Hathaway, The Human Rights "Quagmire" of Human Trafficking, 49 Va.J. Int'l L. 1, 7 (2008) (characterizing trafficking as a sub-set of slavery but noting the constraints of the Palermo Protocol in this respect).
123. Anne Gallagher, Using International Human Rights Law to Better Protect Victims of Trafficking: The Prohibitions of Slavery, Servitude, Forced Labour and Debt Bondage, in The Theory and Practice of International Criminal Law: Essays in Honour of M. Cherif Bassiouni 397 (Leila Nadya Sadat & Michael P. Scharf eds., 2008).
124. Chuang, supra note 59, at 1709.
125. Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery, art. 1(1), adopted 25 Sept. 1926, 60 L.N.T.S. 253 (entered into force 9 Mar. 1927) (providing that "[s]lavery is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.").
126. Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, Slave Trade and Institutions of Similar Practices, art. 7(a) adopted 7 Sept. 1956, 226 U.N.T.S. 3 (entered into force 30 Apr. 1957) (maintaining this focus).
127. Jean Allain, The Definition of Slavery in International Law, 52 How. L. J. 239, 241 (2009).
128. Siliadin v. France, 43 Eur. H.R. Rep. 16, 122 (26 July 2005) (finding that slavery required the exercise of "a genuine right of legal ownership...reducing her to the status of an 'object.'").
129. Prosecutor v. Kunarac, IT-96-23& IT-96-23/1-A, Judgment, Appeals Chamber, 117-19 (Int'l Crim. Trib. for the Former Yugoslavia 12 June 2002).
130. Allain, supra note 95, at 258.
131. Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour (ILO No. 29), art. 2(1), 39 U.N.T.S. 55, entered into force 1 May 1932.
132. Stummer v. Austria, 54 Eur. H.R. Rep. 11, 118 (7 July 2011) (noting that Article 4(2) of the Convention bears "a striking similarity" to this definition).
133. Gallagher, Using International Human Rights Law, supra note 93, at 26 (noting that "the reluctance to identify typical end results of trafficking, particularly sex work, as labor is one reason for this failure to mount what would appear to be a fairly obvious line of attack" referring to the low use of the prohibition of forced and compulsory labor in trafficking cases).
134. Munro, supra note 19, at 96.
135. Jo Doezema, Now You See Her, Now You Don't: Sex Workers at the UN Trafficking Protocol Negotiation, 14 Soc. & Leg. S. 61 (2005).
136. International Labour Organisation (ILO), Forced Labour and Human Trafficking Casebook of Court Decisions 9 (2009).
137. UNODC, Model Law against Trafficking in Persons, art. 5(1)(r), V.09-81990 (E) (5 Aug. 2009).
138. Rantsev, supra note 16, 252.
139. Karl Joseph Partsch, Discrimination, in The European System for the Protection of Human Rights 571, 583 (R. St. J. Macdonald, F. Matscher & H. Petzold eds., 1993) (discussing this approach in relation to Article 14).
140. ILO, supra note 101, at 7 (noting that "situations of state-imposed forced labour or prison labour almost never end up in court. Nor are there any cases contained here involving traditional chattel slavery.").
141. Gallagher, The International Law of Human Trafficking, supra note 28, at 182.
142. Kunarac, supra note 97, 123 (citing U.S. v. Oswald Pohl and Others, Judgment (3 Nov. 1947) in Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council No. 10, Vol. 5 (1949)).
143. Id. 119 (citing with approval Prosecutor v. Kunarac, Case No. IT-96-23-T & IT-96-23/1-T, Judgment, 543 (Int'l Crim. Trib. for the Former Yugoslavia 22 Feb. 2001).
144. ILO, supra note 101, at 20.
145. Siliadin, supra note 96, 124.
146. Id. 124-29.
147. Holly Cullen, Silidian v. France: Positive Obligations under Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights, 6 Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 585, 592 (2006) (arguing that that Article 4 of the European Convention does not present three distinct concepts and that the lines between slavery, servitude, and forced labor are more blurred than would initially appear. She interprets the Court in Siliadin to therefore allow "the concept of servitude to fill any gap between" slavery and forced labor).
148. Siliadin, supra note 96, 117-20.
149. Id. 117 (citing Van der Mussle v. Belgium, 70 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) 34 (1983)).
150. Skrivankova, supra note 19, at 55.
151. Prosecutor v. Krnojelac, IT-97-25-A, 194 (Int'l Crim. Trib for the Former Yugoslavia 17 Sept. 2003).
152. Id. at 24, n.61 (citing Prosecutor v. Krnojelac, IT-97-25-T, 134, 135, 137, 139, 141, 142-43, 146-48 (Int'l Crim. Trib. for the Former Yugoslavia 15 Mar. 2002).
153. Id. 188.
154. Id. 172.
155. See, e.g., id. 188.
156. Id. 191.
157. Id. 194.
158. Kunarac, supra note 97, 120.
159. Vanessa Munro, Of Rights and Rhetoric: Discussions of Degradation and Exploitation in the Context of Sex Trafficking, 35 J. L. & Soc'y 240, 249 (2008).
160. Edwards, supra note 83, at 15.
161. UN Commission on Human Rights, Contemporary Forms of Slavery: Updated Review of the Implementation of and Follow-Up to the Conventions on Slavery: Working Paper Prepared by Mr. David Weissbrodt and Anti-Slavery International, 24, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/3 (26 May 2000).
162. Id. 25.
163. Id. 26.
164. Jean Allain, Book Review: Silvia Scarpa, Trafficking in Human Beings: Modern Slavery, 20 Eur. J. Int'l L. 453, 455 (2009).
165. Edwards, supra note 83, at 15.