The Chowdury Case before the European Court of Human Rights: A Shy Landmark Judgment on Forced Labour and Human Trafficking

In its 30 March 2017 judgment in Chowdury and Others v. Greece, the First Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) unanimously held that there had been a violation of Article 4(2) of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), namely the provision that prohibits forced labour. The judgment represents an important contribution in many ways. Inter alia, it constitutes the favorable epilogue for the applicants and it is an important addition to the still relatively limited Strasbourg case-law on Article 4 ECHR. Nonetheless, the judgment is not immune to criticism. In particular, the article focuses on the shortcomings in the ECtHR’s legal reasoning concerning both the identification of a situa-tion of forced labour and human trafficking and the assessment of Greece’s compliance with its positive obligations. Besides that, the lack of clarity characterising the ECtHR’s reason-ing is likely to have repercussions beyond the specific case, influencing, in perspective, the seminal relevance of the judgment.