FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM
35
Women and Children for Prostitution, 2000 are the thematic instruments
on the issue of trafficking and hence would be analyzed in detail in
separate chapters. This section therefore will focus only on other
international instruments that provide basis for the special laws on
trafficking.
i)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948.
The United Nations Charter, which played a catalyst role in the
human rights movement world over failed some how to define the
fundamental freedoms and human rights. This task was fulfilled by the
UDHR, adopted by the General Assembly on December 10, 194877, which
elucidated the Charter provisions and defined expressly certain human
rights and fundamental freedoms, which need to be protected. The
Declaration is not a legally enforceable instrument, though some of the
rights mentioned has become part of customary international law, “others
are merely general principles of law and represent elementary
consideration of humanity”78. The rights enshrined in the Declaration in
its 30 Articles are broadly divided into civil and political rights, and
economic, social and cultural rights. This Declaration, along with two
other human rights Covenants that were adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly in 1966, have today become the backbones of human
rights jurisprudence the world-over. The rights enshrined in the
Declaration are set “as a common standard of achievement for all people
and all nations”. It is expected that States shall strive by teaching and
education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by
progressive measures, both at national and international levels, to secure
their universal and effective recognition and observance.
i)
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966
(ICCPR)
This Covenant elaborates the political and civil rights identified in
the Universal Declaration, which include the right to life, privacy, fair
trial, freedom of religion, freedom from torture and equality before the
law. All these rights represent the first generation of human rights that
are based on natural rights philosophy of the eighteenth century thinkers,
like Rousseau. Some of the rights mentioned in the Covenant can be
suspended in times of ‘public emergency which threatens the life of the
77
GA Res. 217 (III), GAOR, 3rd Sess, official Records, Part I, Resolutions, p.71.
78
Cf. Corfu Channel Case (Merits) (1949) ICJ Rep., p.4 at 22.