Guest post by Dr. Vladislava Stoyanova, Lecturer and Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Law, Lund University, Sweden (*)
J. and Others v. Austria delivered by the Strasbourg Court on 17 January 2017 adds to the slowly developing body of case law under Article 4 of the ECHR (the right not to be subjected to slavery, servitude and forced labour). For an overview of relevant judgments see my previous post here.[1] Although the Court did not find that Austria was in breach of its procedural obligation under Article 4 (the obligation to investigate), I would like to draw attention to some important pronouncements in the judgments that might hold essential potential in relation to the obligation upon states to identify victims of human trafficking. I would like to also draw attention to the poor engagement by the Court with the definitional challenges raised by Article 4, a deficiency that can be traced back to Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia.[2]
