Human Trafficking and Slavery Reconsidered Conceptual Limits and States' Positive Obligations in European Law

By reconsidering the definitions of human trafficking, slavery, servitude and forced labour, Vladislava Stoyanova demonstrates how, in embracing the human trafficking framework, the international community has sidelined the human rights law commitments against slavery, servitude and forced labour that in many respects provide better protection for abused migrants. Stoyanova proposes two corrective steps to this development: placing a renewed emphasis on determining the definitional scope of slavery, servitude or forced labour, and gaining a clearer understanding of states' positive human rights obligations. This book compares anti-trafficking and human rights frameworks side-by-side and focuses its analysis on the Council of Europe's Trafficking Convention and Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights. With innovative arguments and pertinent case studies, this book is an important contribution to the field and will appeal to students, scholars and legal practitioners interested in human rights law, migration law, criminal law and EU law.

1. Introduction; Part I. The Human Trafficking Legal Framework: 2. Origins, context and the currently valid law; 3. The definition of human trafficking in international law; 4. Positive obligations under the human trafficking legal framework; Part II. The Human Rights Law Framework: 5. The historical background; 6. Definitions with contemporary relevance; 7. The relationship between the concept of human trafficking and the concepts of slavery, servitude and forced labour; 8. Positive obligations under human rights law; 9. Conclusion.

Vladislava Stoyanova is a postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Law, Lunds Universitet, Sweden. She is a lecturer in Migration Law and Human Rights Law and the director of the Migration Law course. She has published extensively in the field of human trafficking, slavery, migration law, refugee law and human rights law, and is an expert in Bulgarian migration and refugee law.