FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM 56 iii) Africa a) African Charter on Human Rights and People’s Rights,1981. The heads of the Organization • Freedom from slavery, of African Unity (OAU) adopted the torture, cruel, inhuman or African Charter on Human Rights degrading punishment or on 17th June 1981. This is the first treatment. human rights document that emphasizes upon the people’s • Right to liberty. rights, that is, third generation group rights. For the enforcement of these rights and duties under the Charter, there is an absence of any judicial or quasi-judicial organ. There exists the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights whose function, to a large extent, is promotional, though it also has the enforcement role. iv) Asia No equivalent regional human rights mechanism exists in Asia. However, two sub-regional mechanisms are working on trafficking. a) South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) SAARC member countries include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Among these countries India, Nepal and Bangladesh face a severe problem of trafficking specially with regard to women and children. Each country serves as a demand, supply and transit zone. Therefore in order to counter the evil of trafficking in women and children, the SAARC member countries have signed a Convention on the Prevention and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution,2000. This Convention emphasizes the need to strengthen regional cooperation in providing assistance, rehabilitation and repatriation to victims of trafficking for prostitution. A detailed analysis of SAARC Convention would be taken up in Chapter 5. b) Asian Regional Initiative against Trafficking (ARIAT) ARIAT declared a regional plan of action for 23 countries in the Asia- Pacific region at its first meeting in Manila in March 2000. The Plan of Action encourages countries to cooperate with one another and with