A/HRC/36/43 definitions stipulated in those international instruments, the practices encompassed by the term “contemporary forms of slavery” cover traditional slavery; the institutions and practices similar to slavery, such as debt bondage, serfdom and forced marriage; and forced labour. The present report focuses on access to justice and remedy for victims of contemporary forms of slavery, particularly for persons subjected to practices in the context of labour exploitation that satisfy the legal definitions of slavery; debt bondage; and forced labour. That focus reflects the information submitted by different stakeholders and Member States in response to the questionnaire prepared by the Special Rapporteur on access to justice and remedy for victims of contemporary forms of slavery. A. General characteristics of slavery, institutions and practices similar to slavery, servitude and forced labour 8. A hierarchy in international law exists among slavery and other forms of exploitation, with slavery being the most severe type of exploitation. 1 The element of control of the person or his/her labour is present in the various forms of exploitation to different degrees, and the most extreme form of control is manifested when it exhibits powers attached to ownership. This accounts for a distinction between slavery and other lesser exploitive practices, such as forced labour, servitude and the institutions and practices similar to slavery. However, such practices can also constitute “slavery” in law and can be prosecuted as such if they manifest any or all of the powers relating to the right of ownership or if the control exercised over the person subjected to the practices is equivalent to possession of the person. 1. Slavery, forced labour, institutions and practices similar to slavery and servitude 9. The Slavery Convention defines slavery in its article 1.1 as “the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised”. That definition relates not only to the de jure status of slavery, but the de facto condition of slavery; it is not restricted to legal ownership — a status that has been abolished worldwide — but to a lived condition in which one individual exercises over another powers that are similar to or attach themselves to the right of ownership. A situation of de facto slavery implies that a person can exercise over another “any or all” of the powers attached to ownership in circumstances where control tantamount to possession is present; that type of control constitutes a prerequisite for any de facto exercise of the powers attaching to ownership.2 10. In furtherance of the elements contained in article 2.1 of its Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), ILO has defined forced labour as work for which a person has not offered him or herself voluntarily (concept of “involuntariness”) and which is performed under menace of any penalty (concept of “coercion”) applied by an employer or a third party to the worker. The four “institutions and practices similar to slavery” defined in the 1956 Supplementary Convention, referred to collectively as “servile status”, should be understood as conventional servitudes. They are: debt bondage; serfdom; forced marriage; and a category that has been subsequently known as “the sale of children”. Furthermore, the notion of “servitude” has also been defined through the decisions of adjudicative organs related to human rights. 3 2. Legal status of the prohibition of slavery 11. The prohibition of slavery has attained jus cogens status and constitutes an obligation erga omnes. The recognition of slavery as jus cogens entails the duty to prosecute or extradite, the non-applicability of statutes of limitation and universality of 1 2 3 4 Jean Allain, The Law and Slavery: Prohibiting Human Exploitation (2015). Ibid. See also report of the Secretary-General on slavery, the slave trade and other forms of servitude (E/2357). See Siliadin v. France, European Court of Human Rights, Application 73316/01 (2005), paras. 123124.