The International Criminal Court issued a new policy on Slavery Crimes on Monday, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan stated the policy is the first “of its kind issued by an international court or tribunal.” 

The policy guidelines aimed to expand the scope of acts beyond that of obvious and literal “bondage” or “captivity” with a purposive analysis that takes into consideration “family separations, reproductive control, sexual harms, malnutrition, branding, or corporal punishments for attempts to escape” as markers of enslavement. The policy goes further and removes the previous element of abuse or enforced labor as required elements of the crime and rules that enslavement “[does not] require that the person who is enslaved “do” anything” and that “a person may be
well-fed, clothed and housed and still be enslaved.”

Slavery is a jus cogens peremptory norm, and those who perpetrate it are held to be hostis humani generis under customary international law. The abolition of slavery is also governed by Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery. Slavery is usually represented as among other things debt peonage, serfdom, child labor, and forced marriage, with the term generally defined as “[a] status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised”. Right of ownership is usually defined as a bracket of interconnected rights, including the right to possession, sale, and conveyance, and the right to exclude others from accessing it. 

Khan stated in light of the new policy:

Today’s publication is the latest effort by my Office to prioritise seeking redress for slavery crimes. Marshalling the successful outcome in the Ongwen case, the Office has dedicated specific attention to slavery crimes by appointing a Special Adviser for Slavery Crimes, Professor Patricia V. Sellers, establishing networks with our national and international partners in accountability and reviewing our charging practices across various situations.

The office is extending the application of the criminal laws against slavery by lowering the threshold to which before the act of enslavement is proven. The ICC policy rejected consent by the enslaved as a defense to slavery, as well as eliminating the requirement that there be an act of purchasing, selling, or lending with commercial or economic intent. It also drew a connection between enslavement and imprisonment, deportation, and enforced disappearances. The usage of the purposive analysis of the indicia of slavery also blurs the line between traditionally non-enslavement conduct, including servile labor, forced labor, child soldiers, child brides, and human trafficking.