UN Forum on Minority Issues and Dalits
2nd thematic session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues: Effective political participation
The focus of the second thematic session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues, held in Geneva on 12-13 November 2009, was on ”minorities and effective political participation”. The Forum considered current practices and ways to increase the effective participation of minorities including, among other issues, the impact of discrimination on the political participation of minorities; meaningful representation/representation and empowerment; obstacles to the political participation of minorities; and quotas, reserved seats or other mechanisms to ensure representation of minorities.
> Read more about the UN Forum on Minority Issues (OHCHR website)
> Draft recommendations on minorities and effective political participation(A/HRC/FMI/2009/4)
The Independent Expert on Minority Issues, Ms. Gay MacDougall, will report back to the Human Rights Council with recommendations from this event at its 13th session in March 2010.
Oral statements
A panel discussion on “Minority Women and Effective Political Participation” was held by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) in collaboration with Gay MacDougall, UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues, on 12 November. A panel of speakers outlined some of the main obstacles to minority women’s political participation. Manjula Pradeep from Navsarjan Trust, Gujarat, India, highlighted the situation of Dalit women in India, and gave her perspectives on how to these obstacles to effective political participation of minority women can be overcome and their rights can be realized.
Several other Dalit activists from India and Nepal participated in this event to highlight the problems facing Dalits, especially Dalit women, when trying to access equal political participation. The following statements were delivered at the Forum:
- Statement on Dalits' access to political participation by Mr. Thirumaavalavan, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha), India
- Statement on Obstacles to Political Participation for Dalit women by Jayshree Mangubhai, researcher on Dalit Women’s Right to Political Participation in Rural Panchayati Raj - A study of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu by Jayshree Mangubhai, Aloysius Irudayam sj, and Emma Sydenham. Published by IDEAS, Justitia et Pax, Equalinrights (2009)
Enhancing Dalits' access to political participation
IDSN has prepared briefing notes and specific recommendations on enhancing Dalits' access to equal political participation and on the human rights situation of Dalit women:
> IDSN briefing note: Dalits' access to political participation
First thematic session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues: Education
The first thematic session, held in December 2008, had a focus on minorities access to education. Ms. Meghna Guhathakurta from Bangladesh was invited by OHCHR to speak about Dalit rights and access to education. Ms. Guhathakurta is the Executive Director of Research Initiatives and she contributes actively to the work of the newly formed Bangladesh Dalit and Excluded Rights’ Movement (BDERM).
> Read the IDSN news about the first session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues
