Prohibition of slavery and forced labour (Article 4 of the ECHR)

(1) No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.

(2) No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.

(3) For the purpose of this article the term “forced or compulsory labour” shall not include:

a) any work required to be done in the ordinary course of detention imposed according to the provisions of Article 5 of this Convention or during conditional release from such detention;

b) any service of a military character or, in case of conscientious objectors in countries where they are recognized, service exacted instead of compulsory military service;

c) any service exacted in case of an emergency or calamity threatening the life or well-being of the community;

d) any work or service which forms part of normal civic obligations

Forced or compulsory labour is “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily”.⁷²⁴ If the circumstances of detention of a person are such that he would fear serious consequences if he refused to perform such work, the work exacted from the prisoner would constitute forced or compulsory labour within the meaning of Article 4 of the ECHR.⁷²⁵

Paragraph 3 indicates certain types of work as exemptions to those considered as forced labour or compulsory labour. This means that certain types of work are in effect compulsory labour but they are not considered as such within the meaning of Article 4, paragraph 2 of the ECHR. According to paragraph 2(a), the term forced or compulsory labour does not include any work required to be done in the ordinary course of detention imposed according to the provisions of Article 5 of this Convention or during conditional release from such detention. Such labour is permissible in the ordinary course of detention not only in relation to convicted offenders, but also to those held on remand.⁷²⁶

Military service as logistic support to the army during armed conflict was also applied to the persons who were not medically fit for military service or to the persons who were not acceptable in terms of ethnic affiliation, i.e., the members of minorities in certain areas. If a person was included in such compulsory military service, which was comparable with the military service and which served as logistic support to the army, the period spent in such service must be included when assessing whether the person was fit regardless of the army to which that person belonged during the armed conflict or the army he served after the armed conflict. If such person is mobilized, despite the fact that he had already been in such service, the mobilization constitutes discrimination

with regards to his right that he must not be forced to be in a service longer than it is applicable to the persons who, proprio motu, served in the army.⁷²⁷

However, with regards to the enjoyment of rights under Article 4 of the ECHR relating to forced labour in the army, the Human Rights Chamber found that such persons were obliged to directly file an application with the Human Rights Chamber within a time limit of 6 months from the date when the treatment complained of ended, i.e., after 14 December 1995 (the date of entry into force of Annex 6), on the assumption that there was no effective legal remedy available in Bosnia and Herzegovina before.⁷²⁸ The Human Rights Chamber certainly did not take a view on this issue, i.e., as to whether there was an effective legal remedy in Bosnia and Herzegovina so that this decision allowed a lawsuit in the future, such as a claims for damages.