FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM 25 “All human rights are universal, indivisible and inter dependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis. While the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious background must be borne in mind, it is the duty of states, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms”.56 Thus universality, inalienability and indivisibility are basic principles of human rights. Universality means that human rights belong to everyone, everywhere, and they are same for all people irrespective of age, race, class, gender, ethnicity, language, colour or castes. These need to be upheld and protected at all times. Inalienability means all rights belong to all persons right from the time of birth. A person is born with these rights and these rights cannot be taken away from him/her. Indivisibility means all human rights are related to each other; consequently rights are interrelated and interdependent. No sets of rights have precedence over other and they together provide wholesome existence to a person. But, despite the declaration of above-mentioned tenets of human rights law, there exists category of groups such as women, children, ethnic minorities, etc. whose rights are violated more often than those of others. In other words they are generally deprived of their rights because they belong to particular category whose rights are not recognized. This leads us to a discussion of rights of women and children within human rights discourse for these are the groups, who are most vulnerable to trafficking. 1. Women’s Rights are Human Rights Equality on the basis of sex is at the heart of all instruments on human rights. Article 1 of the United Nations Charter sets out three main purposes of the UN, the last of which includes “to define and protect the 56 Richard B. Bilder, “An Overview of International Human Rights Law”, in Hurst Hannum (Ed.) Guide to International Human Rights Practice, 3rd Edition, Transnational Publishers Inc., New York, 1999. p 15; Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, A / CONF. 157/23, adopted on 12 July 1993.