Contemporary Forms of Slavery,403 the United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons,404 the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights405 and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.406 268. Based on the summary of binding international instruments and the rulings of the international tribunals listed above, the Court notes that the absolute and universal prohibition of slavery is established in international law, and the definition of this concept has not varied substantially since the 1926 Convention: “Slavery is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.” Regarding the two aspects of the traditional definition of slavery or “chattel slavery”407 (status or condition of a person; exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership), the Court has verified that: (i) since the 1926 Convention the slave trade has been equated to slavery for the purposes of its prohibition and elimination; (ii) the 1956 Supplementary Convention extended protection against slavery also to “institutions and practices similar to slavery” such as debt bondage and serfdom, among others,408 in addition to stipulating the prohibition of trafficking and the respective State obligations, and (iii) the Rome Statute and the International Law Commission added the “exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership” such as by trafficking in persons to the definition of enslavement. B.3. Aspects of the concept of slavery 269. Based on the evolution of the concept of slavery in international law and on the prohibition established in Article 6 of the American Convention on Human Rights, the Court observes that the concept has evolved and is no longer limited to the ownership of a person. In this regard, the Court considers that the two fundamental aspects to define a situation as slavery are: (i) the status or condition of a person, and (ii) the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership; in other words, the enslaver exercises power or control over the enslaved person to the point of obliterating the personality of the victim. The characteristics of each of these aspects are understood in keeping with the criteria or factors identified below. 270. The first aspect (status or condition) refers to both the de jure and the de facto situation; in other words, the existence of a formal document or law is not essential to characterize the phenomenon, as in the case of traditional or chattel slavery. 271. Regarding the aspect of “ownership,” this should be understood within the phenomenon of slavery as “possession”; that is, demonstration of control of one person over another. Consequently, “when determining the level of control required to consider an act as slavery, […] this could be equated to the loss of a person’s own will, or to a considerable particularly for purposes of sexual exploitation], which constitutes a violation of several Covenant rights, including the right under article 8 to be free from slavery and servitude.” United Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. Report E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/30, June 23, 1993, para. 99; Report E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/14, July 6, 1998, para. 97.6. 403 United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially E/CN.4/2005/71, December 22, 2004, para. 18. 404 women and children, Report OHCHR, Abolishing Slavery and its Contemporary Forms, David Weissbrodt and Anti-Slavery International, UN Doc. HR/PUB/02/4, 2002. Available at: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/slaveryen.pdf. 405 IACHR, Captive Communities: Situation of the Guaraní Indigenous People and Contemporary Forms of Slavery in the Bolivian Chaco, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.Doc. 58, 2009. 406 “Chattel slavery” refers to traditional slavery or legal slavery, in which one person legally belonged to another. See, written expert opinion of Jean Allain (evidence file, folios 14915 and 14920). 407 408 1956 Supplementary Convention, Article 1. 70