FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM 67 It is in this background that the International Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime144 and its three protocols against: Trafficking in Persons 145 ; Smuggling of Migrants 146 ; and Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms147 emerged. The negotiation process started in December 1998 when the United Nations General Assembly established an inter-governmental, ad-hoc committee and charged it with developing a new international legal regime to fight transnational organized crime148. In October 2000, after eleven sessions involving participation from more than 120 States, the ad-hoc committee concluded its work149. The Convention along with its two protocols dealing respectively with Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons – Especially Women and Children were adopted by the General Assembly in November, 2000150 and opened for signature at a high-level inter-governmental meeting convened in Palermo, Italy, in December, 2000. The significance of these developments should not be underestimated. The Vienna process151, as it has come to be known, represents the first serious attempt by the international community to invoke the weapon of international law in its battle against transnational organized crime152. It is because of the transnational character of trafficking with links with smuggling of migrants and involvement of organized crime syndicates that the Trafficking Protocol is attached to the Transnational Organized Crime Convention. The Convention along with the Trafficking Protocol and Migrant Smuggling Protocol represent the 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, opened for signature on 12 Dec. 2000, U.N.GAOR, 55th Sess., Annex I, Agenda Item 105, at 25 UN Doc. A/55/383 (2000) (please check). Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, U.N. Doc. A/55/383(1000), Anex II. Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, U.N. Doc. A/55/383(2000), Annex III. Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, their Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, U.N Doc. A/Res. /55/255(2001). Transnational Organized Crime, G.A. Res. 53/111, U.N. GAOR, 53rd Sess., 85th plen. mtg., U.N. Doc. A/RES/53/111(1998). Report of the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of a Convention against Transnational Organized Crime on the work of its first to eleventh sessions, UN GAOR 55th Sess, Agenda Item 105, at 1, U.N. DOC. A/55/383(2000). G.A. Res. 55/25, of 15 Nov. 2000. The Convention and the Protocols were negotiated under the auspices of the Vienna-based United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (a functional Commission of the Economic and Social Council). Anne Gallagher, Human Rights and the New UN Protocols on Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling: A Preliminary Analyses in Human Rights Quarterly, 23, 2001, pp. 975-1004, John Hopkins University Press.