Human rights violations against 170 million people is not an “internal issue” – At the UN racism conference nation states and NGOs put caste discrimination on the agenda, while India objected
Geneva, April 24, 2009 (IDSN): Despite caste-discrimination being left out of the official programme and the final outcome document at the Durban Review Conference, states and NGOs spoke out strongly on the issue in statements at the conference Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland.
Nepal spoke with great concern about the many problems associated with inhumane untouchability practices, resulting from caste discrimination in Nepal, and alongside Slovenia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Mauritius put the issue back on the conference agenda.
India, who has a history of considering caste discrimination an internal issue, objected strongly to the issue of caste being brought up at this conference.
Meanwhile, there are at least 170 million victims of caste discrimination in India alone and 260 million globally.
In a similar vein, Justice B.C. Patel of the National Human Rights Commission in India spoke out at a side event on caste discrimination earlier in the week, referring to caste issues in India as internal issues which should be dealt with as “family affairs”.
This statement was strongly objected to by the many Dalits (victims of caste discrimination) present at the event, who feel nothing is being done to implement laws and stop discrimination at the local level.
Following the statements Thursday, a large group of Asian and international NGOs issued a statement saying, “We strongly reject the argument that caste-based discrimination is an ‘internal affair’ which should not be addressed by relevant UN mechanisms, including this Review Conference.”
Co-ordinator of the Copenhagen-based International Dalit Solidarity Network, Rikke Nöhrlind pointed out that victims of caste based discrimination suffer a hidden apartheid of segregation, modern-day slavery and other forms of discrimination,
– This issue has been skilfully hidden by certain governments and Dalits are simply being treated as lesser human beings and denied justice, she noted.
India has objected to caste being associated to the issue of race and while the group of NGOs comment that caste is not the same as race.
They contend that it results in similar manifestations as reaffirmed by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in its General Recommendation 29.
– Caste discrimination is a major global human rights issue, that needs to be effectively dealt with at the international level, Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor at Human Rights Watch commented, adding:
– As the UN racial discrimination committee has made perfectly clear, caste discrimination falls under the Race Convention, and thereby within the scope of this review conference.
Erlier this week UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay
said that the conference was about racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and she personally felt that “related intolerance” would cover issues of caste, class and social status.
Ms. Pilay has also spoken out strongly against caste discrimination in her visits to India and Nepal in March.
Despite these assertions, caste discrimination was left out completely of the final outcome document of the conference.
Commenting on this Paul Divakar of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) in India, said that officially, “This Durban Review Conference has totally eliminated any mention of caste or discrimination based on work and descent, despite including text on similar groups such as the Romas”
Yderligere oplysninger hos
Maria Brink Schleimann, Communications Officer
International Dalit Solidarity Network
Nørrebrogade 66 C, 1. sal, 2200 Kbn N
Tel: 35 24 50 83
We are not untouchable
-260 million reasons to act
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www.idsn.org/wearenotuntouchable
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