Presentation

The European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia marked a decisive development in the protection of victims of human trafficking under Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights. By bringing trafficking within the scope of Article 4 and articulating positive obligations to prevent trafficking, protect individuals at risk, and investigate situations of exploitation, the Court transformed Article 4 ECHR into an increasingly important source of victim protection.

This presentation traces the development of the Court’s jurisprudence from Rantsev to its more recent case law, focusing particularly on the expanding content of states’ positive obligations. Strong focus will be placed on In Krachunova and Others v Bulgaria, where the Court for the first time held that ‘there is a positive obligation under Article 4 of the Convention to enable trafficking victims to claim compensation from their traffickers in respect of lost earnings.’  The rationale behind this obligation is recovery of victims and reducing the risk of re-trafficking. In V.C.L. and A.N. v the United Kingdom, the Court for the first time held that States have a positive obligation to identify victims and allow for the possibility after identification for not prosecuting them for crimes that they might have been compelled to commit. It is essential how the Court reasoned in Krachunova and Others v Bulgaria and in V.C.L. and A.N. v the United Kingdom. More specifically, it first emphasized the risk of re-trafficking and the risk of further harm. It also emphasized the objective of helping victims to recover.

The Court has therefore organised its reasoning with reference to risk. Against this background, the presentation asks whether the Court’s evolving jurisprudence has produced a coherent framework of protection and considers what this development tells us more generally about the potential - and limits - of the ECHR as an instrument for protecting individuals against trafficking.

Speaker

Vladislava Stoyanova is Associate Professor of Public International Law at the Faculty of Law, Lund University, Sweden. She is the holder of the Wallenberg Academy Fellowship (2021-2026) awarded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. She is the receiver of the 2023 Henrik Enderlein Prize for research excellence. 

Her key publications include Positive Obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights: Within and Beyond Boundaries (Oxford University Press, 2023 open access), Human Trafficking and Slavery Reconsidered: Conceptual Limits and States’ Positive Obligations in European Law (Cambridge University Press, 2017), From Protection to Coercion: the Limits of Positive Obligations in Human Rights (Hart Publishing, 2026 open access) and The Role of the Causal Inquiry under the European Convention on Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

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Organised by

This event is organised by the Geneva Graduate Institute's Global Migration Centre.