European External Action Service and the European Commission

IDSN lobbies the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the European Commission to include caste discrimination in programming in caste affected countries and to address caste discrimination through bilateral dialogues with caste affected countries.

In 2010 IDSN wrote an open letter to Ms. Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security and head of the new European External Action Service (EEAS). IDSN called upon her to ensure that caste-based discrimination is given the attention appropriate for a human rights problem of this magnitude. IDSN maintained that the EU must take a high profile official stand on the unacceptability of caste-based discrimination. Unless this issue is taken up with strong leadership at the highest levels of government, an estimated 260 million people around the world will remain condemned to a lifetime of abuse simply because of the caste into which they are born.

Whilst EU calls for proposals increasingly accommodate activities to combat caste discrimination and to strengthen Dalit civil society, current country strategy papers and programming documents still fall short. Without an EU policy to address caste discrimination, people affected by this form of discrimination risk remaining politically and programmatically invisible. Likewise, without strengthening EU instruments specifically to address this form of discrimination, the need for special measures may remain unaddressed.

IDSN suggested to the High Representative that the EEAS - within the framework of the Human Rights Policy Review initiated in 2010 - consider the progress made by the Commission, the Council and the Parliament to address discrimination based on ‘work and descent’ and work towards an effective EU policy. The open letter and IDSN’s recommendations for an EU policy on the topic were distributed widely. Recipients included EU Commissioners Piebalgs and Georgieva with the portfolios for development and humanitarian assistance, respectively, MEPs, senior officials in the EU Commission, and member states. Dalit Solidarity Networks in Finland, the Netherlands, the UK, Denmark, Belgium and France shared the letter with their foreign ministry officials and parliamentarians.

The letter created a fair level of response; in a reply from Ms Ashton and Ms Georgieva, it was stressed that the EU is concerned about all forms of discrimination, including caste discrimination. The issue is seen as part of the recurrent social exclusion theme and “addressed at country level as such, including in the EU-India human rights dialogue”. Responding on behalf of Ms Ashton, Mr Remond, Head of the Asia Section, mentions that “combating social exclusion is a subject that is regularly on the agenda of the EU-India Human Rights Dialogue, and in this context an EU-India workshop on the subject is presently being given consideration.”  

IDSN had been engaging with the Commission, i.e. the delegation in India on a proposal for an EU-civil society consultation on caste discrimination and whilst it is encouraging that high level representatives of some EU member states in India in informal discussions reflect their concern about caste discrimination, a higher public profile on the issue could be wished for.

The Head of the Human Rights Unit, Mr Timans, has expressed an expectation for the member states to move beyond a mainly project based approach, and welcomed IDSN’s contribution to inform EU’s policy approach regarding Dalit issues.

Discrimination and Development Assistance

A study requested by the European Parliament’s Development Committee, was conducted in 2010 to address the anti-discrimination policies of the EC development cooperation.  The study entitled “Discrimination and Development Assistance” examines to what extend EC development policies contribute to combating discrimination of marginalised groups through a review of country strategy papers, thematic strategy papers, communications and guidelines. The study concluded that the EC policies are mostly “confined to combating ethnic, racial, religious and gender discrimination” and pointed to a need to give further attention to LGBT and disabled people’s concerns.   The study did not carry a single reference to caste-based discrimination. Dalits or other people affected by ‘discrimination based on work and descent’ were invisible.  Among the ten country papers examined were those of India and Bangladesh.