compulsory labour,” because the victim feels “that their condition is permanent and that the situation is unlikely to change.”420 In addition, coercion may be both overt and subtle.421 280. Consequently, the Court agrees with the European Court’s definition of “servitude” and considers that this term in Article 6(1) of the Convention should be interpreted as “the obligation to perform certain services for others […] that is imposed by the use of coercion,” and “the obligation for the ‘serf’ to live on another person's property and the impossibility of altering his condition.” B.5. Definition of the slave trade and traffic in women and their prohibition 281. The American Convention prohibits both the slave trade and traffic in women “in all their forms”; therefore, the Court interprets this prohibition broadly and subject to clarification of its definition in keeping with its evolution in international law. The Court will now examine the evolution of the prohibition of the slave trade and traffic of women in international law in order to define the legal content of the prohibition established in the American Convention. 282. Regarding the prohibition of the slave trade, this has been associated with slavery 422 since the 1926 Convention and entails the obligation for States to abolish this practice. 423 Its prohibition is also absolute and is explicit in all the instruments reviewed in the previous sections. 283. The prohibition of the traffic in women (and children) is the subject of several international treaties adopted during the twentieth century, 424 and it was consolidated in the 1949 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.425 Article 1 of this Convention refers to the element of “consent” and to the exploitation (the prostitution) of another person, as key elements of the prohibition of prostitution and the traffic in persons for this purpose. 284. Meanwhile, the principal specialized international treaty on trafficking, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (hereinafter “the Protocol of Palermo”), of 2000, clearly establishes the prohibition of trafficking in persons in its article 4.426 Also, article 3 of this Protocol defines human trafficking or trafficking in persons as follows: 420 ECHR, Case of C.N. and V. v. France, No. 67724/09, Judgment of October 11, 2012, para. 91. 421 ECHR, Case of C.N. v. The United Kingdom, No. 4239/08, Judgment of November 13, 2012, para. 80. 422 See Written expert opinion of Jean Allain, folio 14917. According to expert witness Jean Allain, “The prohibition of slavery overlaps with the prohibition of the slave trade.” Written expert opinion of Jean Allain, folio 14917. 423 International Agreement for the suppression of the "White Slave Traffic" of May 18, 1904, amended by the Protocol adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 3, 1948; International Convention of May 4, 1910, for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic, amended by the Protocol adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 3, 1948; International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic of Women and Children of September 30, 1921, amended by the Protocol adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on October 20, 1947; International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women of Full Age of October 11, 1933, amended by the Protocol adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on October 20, 1947. 424 See Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/TrafficInPersons.aspx. 425 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime Article 4. Available at: https://www.osce. org/odihr/19223?download=true. 426 73