King's College London

The European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled in favour of the applicant B.B. in a human trafficking case against Slovakian authorities, finding violations of her human rights had taken place under Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits human trafficking, slavery, servitude and forced labour.

In B.B. v. Slovakia, (Application no. 48587/21) the case concerned domestic proceedings in Slovakia in response to an allegation of human trafficking that was brought by Ms B.B., a person of Roma ethnicity with learning disabilities who from birth was brought up in an orphanage/State care in Slovakia. After leaving the orphanage she was exploited by a family who took her in and then sold her to a human trafficker who trafficked her to the United Kingdom in 2010.She was then forced into sexual exploitation for at least a year. On her return to Slovakia, she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, which arose due to her exploitation and experiences in the UK. The NGO Caritas Slovakia formally identified her as a victim of trafficking and asked the police to open a criminal investigation into her case.

The Slovakian domestic authorities charged and convicted the perpetrator of her exploitation with the criminal offence of pimping instead of human trafficking, resulting in B.B. being forced out of the specialist care available for human trafficking victims that was being provided to her by Caritas Slovakia. Assisted by lawyers and the NGO, B.B. challenged the reclassification of the offence with which her trafficker had been charged, arguing that by failing to properly investigate the crime of human trafficking and by charging the perpetrator with the lesser offence of pimping, the Slovak authorities had violated her rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, including Art 4 ECHR.

In a unanimous judgment of the ECtHR under Art 4 ECHR, the Court found that Slovakia had failed to carry out an effective investigation into a credible suspicion of human trafficking, and that despite circumstances being indicative of human trafficking, the domestic authorities had limited their efforts to establishing the offence of pimping which carried lighter penalties and for which the perpetrator was convicted.

In finding significant flaws in the domestic proceedings including a failure to by the domestic authorities to take all reasonable steps to collect evidence, the Court also found the Slovak authorities had failed to demonstrate “an understanding of the many subtle ways an individual can fall under the control of another”.

The Court awarded the Applicant a substantial compensation of 26,000 Euros, along with legal costs.

Professor Parosha Chandran has long been an advocate for justice for victims of modern slavery and trafficking. This case marks the third unanimous judgment in cases which she has taken to the Strasbourg Court under Article 4 ECHR in three years. Earlier this month, on 10 October 2024, she won another unanimous judgment in favour of a vulnerable trafficking victim in T.V. v. Spain. Read the first case of this recent trio.  

Caritas Slovakia (Slovenska katolicka charita), the NGO that supported the Applicant in the domestic proceedings and in the ECtHR said: "We express our profound gratitude to Ms Parosha Chandran for fighting this case in the European Court of Human Rights and for her extensive expertise and commitment in being the voice of the voiceless and for securing justice for BB. It was a lifetime experience for us to have a world-renowned expert successfully represent the case and this will continue to motivate and inspire us through any future challenges that may lie ahead."

Read further details on the ECHR’s website.