PREFACE measure, on economic, social and cultural rights as well as on group rights, just as it does on civil and political rights. The indivisibility and inter-related nature of rights is a reality and there is a symbiosis between them. That Is why the reports of the Commission have sought to encompass all of them. In approaching issues of concern to it, including vexed issues such as the protection of human rights in the face of terrorism, the Commission has, at all times, sought to be guided by the phiiosophy of the Constitution which, in its Preamble, has expressed the two core values that must Jointly be protected and advanced: the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation. In the scheme of the Constitution, there is no incompatibility between these values, instead, they reinforce each other. A strong nation requires, as a sine qua non, the strong protection of the dignity of those who comprise the nation. To act otherwise, is to injure both. Indeed, in the final analysis, it is the dignity and worth of the most vulnerable and marginalised that must, above all, be protected if the political and economic strength of the nation is to be assured and its cohesiveness guaranteed. The defence of the frontiers of our Republic thus begins with the defence of its citizenry, starting with the weakest. This is why the Commission has been urging that particular attention be paid to the rights of the most vulnerable: women and children, especially the girl child, bonded and child labour and those who are the victims of trafficking, dalits and adivasis, members of minority groups, those challenged by disabilities and those displaced and rendered homeless by mega-calamities and mega-proJects. It is for them that the doors of opportunity must, first and foremost, be thrown open. It is their right to education, health, nutrition and shelter that must be advanced if the nation is to fulfil Its great potential and destiny. The defence of human rights and dignity is an imperative of the Constitution and there should be no doubt or ambivalence on this matter. The greater the power, the greater the responsibility to recognise and to act upon this imperative. Mahatma Gandhi, who had an unrivaled capacity to express the truth with simplicity and directness, put it this way: 'It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings/ NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION