The United Nations Human Rights Office in Nepal (OHCHR Nepal) organized a regional symposium on access to justice for victims of caste-based discrimination. Challenges, lessons learned and good practices from Nepal were shared with participants from the country and other South Asian nations. The Office’s report - Opening the Doors to Equality: Access to Justice for Dalits in Nepal - served as the basis for the discussion.

At the same time, the report identifies the challenges and obstacles that continue to prevent victims from accessing the justice system. These include the low levels of awareness that caste-based discrimination is a crime; lack of appropriate support from law enforcement agencies; and the social and economic factors that further hinder progress, such as poverty.

The report presents...

Dalit human rights defenders from India, Nepal and Bangladesh voiced their concerns about effective political participation of Dalit women at the 4th session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues. The thematic focus of the session, which was held in Geneva on 29-30 November 2011, was “Guaranteeing the rights of minority women”.

When summing up her experience, Ms. Pushpa Vaghela, a Dalit women’s leader from Navsarjan Trust in India, explains that it was “a good learning experience” to see how the UN system works and to meet other minority representatives from all over the world. Despite the different cultures, issues, and language, she says that “the vision and mission is the same” for all participants. She concludes that overall it was “a great memory of life to understand, know, struggle, and learn” from this event.

During the Forum’s sessions, two Dalit women leaders made presentations in the panel discussion on minority women and effective political participation, on 29 November. Ms. Sonu Rani, who is associated with the...

A way to effectively address caste-based discrimination in India is by reforming institutions of justice administration. This means changing the manner in which institutions like the police, prosecution and judiciary function in the region. At the moment, what are obtained in the name of human rights are only empty promises. When public institutions of justice fail having a law to guarantee non-discrimination of Dalits is of no meaning. What is achieved in India will have tremendous influence in the region.

Police reforms

Despite constitutional protection and laws like the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 there is hardly any improvement in the investigations into the violations of Dalit rights. The reason is quite obvious. The investigators are the police and among them prejudices against Dalits run deep.

The Indian police is primitive concerning the caste issue. It can be also said that police is the most undeveloped of all the public institutions in the country. A combination of factors, including its colonial origin and the overwhelming influence of old Indian prejudices have made the Indian policing system one of the most archaic institutions of the world.

India has attempted to modernise many of its institutions and achieve some degree of success. In commerce, for example banking, India has achieved remarkable success and today is in a position to compete efficiently with the...

"The adoption of legislation criminalizing caste-based discrimination was a great achievement in 2011 for the Dalit community, who had long been advocating for this legislation. However, this legislation runs the risk of being rendered meaningless, if no tangible rejuvenation of the justice system takes place."

On the occasion of the 63rd Human Rights Day, the Asian Human Rights Commission is releasing its annual report on the state of human rights protection in Nepal through 2011. The report is available here.

Given the continuity of challenges presented in this report, the AHRC wishes to take the opportunity of its publishing to restate the crucial importance of a continuous OHCHR presence in the country to ensure that the issues of accountability and justice are not sacrificed to political considerations. We therefore urge the government to extend the OHCHR's mandate to ensure its capacity to monitor the human rights situation in Nepal until the completion of the transition process.

2011 began with the Government of Nepal committing before the international community to uphold the rule of law and defend the human rights of its people. During the United Nations Human...

Press Release: Activists, members of international organisations, NGOs, Solidarity Networks and researchers from across the world, have launched a landmark Urgent Global Call for Action to Eliminate Caste-Based Discrimination.The call was launched on the 1st December, as an outcome of the International Consultation on Good Practices and Strategies to Eliminate Caste Based Discrimination, held in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nepal, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, spoke at the Consultation, affirming the commitment of the Nepal Government to take this call for action forward. In his speech he reached out to other Governments of caste affected countries to come forward and join Nepal in making this issue a priority on a global level.

Mr. Shrestha commented, “I firmly believe that this consultation will be instrumental in bringing all concerned parties together to end caste-based discrimination.”

Head of the Asia Pacific Unit at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Rory Mungoven, confirmed the commitment of the OHCHR to making caste-based discrimination a priority in their work, not only in Nepal, but also on a...

Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) calls for Government attention to Nepal’s Dalits, the Gandharva community in particular, who suffer from severe food insecurity and poverty.

Dear Prime Minister:

During the month of the World Food Day (October 16) and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (October 17), the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) would like to bring your attention to Nepal’s Dalits, the Gandharva community in particular, who suffer from severe food insecurity and poverty.

More than half of Nepal’s population live below the poverty line, living on less than USD 1.25 a day, with Dalits being the most vulnerable among other social groups. About 40 percent of children under five years of age are underweight, and 40 percent of children under 16 are engaged in child labour. Structural inequality and caste based discrimination remains the biggest obstacle in achieving Dalits’ fundamental rights and eradicating the poverty they suffer from, despite some institutional efforts to this effect by the government.

As clearly...

The UN and national level Dalit bodies are urging the Government to end the bonded labour system in Nepal, known as the Haliya system, and implement rehabilitation schemes for freed Haliyas. Haliyas in Nepal are predominantly Dalits, excluded from other work due to rampant caste discrimination.

Read the full Joint Press Release from the UN, National Human Rights Commission, National Dalit Commission, and National Women Commission below:

End the Haliya system in Nepal say the NHRC, NDC, NWC and UN

KATHMANDU - Although the September 2008 agreement between the Government of Nepal and Federation of National Haliya Liberation Society formally declared the liberation of Haliyas, tangible outcomes have yet to be achieved. The draft Haliya Prohibition Bill has not been passed, and the Government has yet to form the high level Haliya Emancipation and Rehabilitation Commission as agreed, or to publicize the results of the survey of Haliyas in Nepal”, stated a press statement released today by National Human Rights Commission, National Dalit Commission, National Women Commission and two UN agencies, the International Labour Organisation and the UN Human Rights Office in Nepal.

“Three years after signing of the agreement,...

Desperately needed shelter and relief items are not reaching hundreds of thousands of Dalits who are left homeless after the severe flooding in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Dalits are being discriminated against because their caste relegates them to the bottom of the social order in Pakistan and ‘untouchability practices’ exclude them from sharing the same shelters as other members of society.

 “The school I teach in has been turned into a camp for flood affected people, but when three Hindu families from the Kohli caste [Dalits] sought refuge there, they were denied it,” says Jewat Ram, a local school teacher in Sindh.

“Mostly government schools are used as flood relief camps but no single Dalit family has been witnessed to be accommodated in school camps due to prevailing ‘untouchability’,” says Kalavanti Raja, from the Pakistan Dalit Solidarity Network (PDSN).

Media reports from a number of different areas in Sindh all confirm that caste discrimination is severely inhibiting Dalits’ access to relief aid. Beyond being turned away...

“I commit to end caste-based discrimination and untouchability!” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, in her video message, kicking off the bold 100 day campaign launched by her office and the National Dalit Commission (NDC) in Nepal.

The International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN) has been working to end caste discrimination for more than a decade and wholeheartedly welcomes this new campaign.

“The campaign is a fantastic initiative and we would like to encourage everyone to go to the website and register their commitment to help end one of the biggest human rights issues the world is facing today,” says IDSN Coordinator, Rikke Nöhrlind.

While the campaign is primarily focused on Nepal, IDSN would like to encourage the global community, Dalits and human rights defenders in other caste affected countries to take this opportunity to pledge their support to a cause that can help 260 million people affected by caste...

The UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery noted with concern that children from marginalised groups, including tribal and lower caste communities, are "doubly vulnerable to abuses" in the mining sector.

46. Many children who work also come from groups that have been discriminated against and/or marginalized, for example, indigenous peoples, migrants or those given a certain social status such as caste. For example, countries may have a highly stratified society which in many communities dictates the kind of work one does. This means that a family from a particular stratum can only perform certain jobs. The lower you are in this stratified society the lower paid the jobs that one can perform. Consequently, one finds that many children who work are those from the lower strata. This makes them doubly vulnerable to abuses.

In South Asia the Dalits and tribal groups represent a large majority of those who work in mines. According to an ILO report (2005), bonded labourers in...