Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia

In Cyprus (defendant), cabaret companies were well-known for recruiting foreign women to work on special artiste visas. Not until the women arrived in Cyprus did they learn their work would involve prostitution, their contract would include substantial debt, their accommodations would be dismal, and they would not be free to leave. The Cypriot authorities were long aware of the problem of artiste visas as a front for prostitution. A cabaret company in Cyprus hired Oxana Rantseva, a young Russian woman, to legally enter Cyprus on an artiste visa for her role in X.A.’s cabaret. X.A.’s brother, M.A., managed the cabaret. When Rantseva arrived, M.A. confiscated Rantseva’s passport. Within weeks, Rantseva attempted to run away. Another cabaret artiste spotted Rantseva and reported her location to M.A. M.A. called the Cypriot police and asked that Rantseva be arrested. The police arrested Rantseva and failed to question her about whether she was being held in Cyprus against her will. The police returned Rantseva and her passport to M.A. M.A. brought Rantseva to a fifth-floor apartment and slept near the door so that Rantseva could not escape. In the night, Rantseva fastened a bedspread to her balcony window and attempted to climb down, but she was found dead on the street below the apartment the next morning. Rantseva’s father (plaintiff) brought a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the convention), alleging that Cyprus and Russia (defendant) had failed to protect his daughter from human trafficking and had failed to properly investigate her death.