IDSN background note: Caste and the UN
In September 2009 a media debate on caste discrimination and the UN gathered momentum following a Human RightsCouncil side event on this issue on 16 September.
Some of the reports – not least the article in The Telegraph issued on 29 September – have contained a lot of factual errors. Below is some background information and corrections to some of the misconceptions in the media reports:
The exact number of Dalits or ‘untouchables’ is unknown, but it is certainly much higher than 65 million. The official Indian figure is 167 million, unofficial estimates place it closer to 200 million people, and on a global scale, there are probably more than 260 million people who suffer from this form of discrimination.
It is not correct that the UN Human Rights Council “will ratify draft principles which recognizes the scale of persecution etc.” at this session, although support for these draft principles and guidelines is gathering momentum. In May 2009 the Human Rights Council published the final report on ‘discrimination based on work and descent’ (the UN terminology for caste discrimination) and the side event on 16 September was organized to call for the Council’s support to the draft UN principles and guidelines as a comprehensive framework to eliminate caste discrimination. It is hoped that a follow-up process in the Human Rights Council will lead to the adoption of the draft UN principles and guidelines and the establishment of a human rights follow-up mechanism to monitor the compliance of this framework.
The draft UN principles and guidelines have not yet been formally considered in the Human Rights Council. The Government of India did however object to a reference to ‘caste’ in the outcome document of the Durban Review Conference. India also called for a vote in the Human Rights Council (and lost) when a proposal to publish the final report on discrimination based on work and descent, containing the draft UN principles and guidelines, was presented at its 10th session in March this year.
Mr. Jeet Bahadur Darjee Gautam is not the foreign minister of Nepal but Nepal’s State Minister for General Administration. Read his statement here
It was Marcia V.J. Kran, Director of the OHCHR Research and Right to Development Division who said in her statement on behalf of the UN High Commissioner Ms. Navi Pillay that she would like to encourage other States to follow Nepal’s commendable example of sharing valuable insights into good practices and national challenges related to the issue of caste-based discrimination. It was also Ms. Kran who said that Nepal's response marked a "significant step by a country grappling with this problem itself". Read the full statement here
> Read press clippings related to the issue here
