CERD General Recommendation no. 29 on descent-based discrimination (2002)

Read the full text of the General Recommendation

Measures of a general nature

1. To take steps to identify those descent-based communities under their jurisdiction who suffer from discrimination, especially on the basis of caste and analogous systems of inherited status, and whose existence may be recognized on the basis of various factors including some or all of the following: inability or restricted ability to alter inherited status; socially enforced restrictions on marriage outside the community; private and public segregation, including in housing and education, access to public spaces and places of worship, and public sources of food and water; limitation of freedom to renounce inherited occupations or degrading or hazardous work; subjection to debt bondage; subjection to dehumanizing discourses of pollution or untouchability; and generalized lack of respect for their human dignity and equality.

6. To adopt special measures in favour of descent-based groups and communities in order to ensure their enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular concerning access to public functions, employment and education.

7. To establish statutory mechanisms, through the strengthening of existing institutions or the creation of specialized institutions, to promote respect for the equal human rights of members of descent-based communities.

8. To educate the general public on the importance of affirmative action programmes to address the situation of victims of descent-based discrimination.

9. To encourage dialogue between members of descent-based communities and members of other social groups.

Right to education

44. To ensure that public and private education systems include children of all communities and do not exclude any children on the basis of descent.

45. To reduce school dropout rates for children of all communities, in particular for children of affected communities with special attention to the situation of girls.

46. To combat discrimination by public or private bodies and any harassment of students who are members of descent-based communities.

47. To take necessary measures in co-operation with civil society to educate the population as a whole in a spirit of non-discrimination and respect for the communities subject to descent-based discrimination.

48. To review all language in textbooks which convey stereotyped or demeaning images, language, names or opinions concerning descent-based communities and replace them by images, language, etc., which convey the message of the inherent dignity of all human beings and their equality in human rights.