Report on the UN Human Rights Council 26th session, 17th June 2014, side-event on 'Caste-based violence against women: The role of the UN in combatting caste-based violence and discrimination'.
A group of Dalit activists met Ms. Navi Pillay to express their gratitude for her unwavering commitment to support them in their struggle to end caste-based discrimination, during her tenure, which ends in August 2014.
Side Event Highlights Need for Concrete Action
On Tuesday 17th June the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay, will give the opening statement at a side-event on caste-based violence against women, at the UN Human Rights Council. The event comes following a series of brutal rape cases against Dalit women and the rape and hanging of two teenage cousins in India.
Within the span of a month the urgent issue of caste discrimination has been highlighted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Rights to Freedom of Assembly, The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the UNDP. Earlier this year the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women also reported grave concern for Dalit women.
For seven years IDSN’s application for UN ECOSOC consultative status has been blocked on spurious grounds. IDSN is a key actor in bringing the plight of 260 million Dalits, suffering from caste discrimination worldwide, to the attention of the UN. Blocking IDSN’s accreditation is an attempt to silence the human rights issues of a quarter of a billion people. The IDSN application is now the application that has been deferred the longest by the ECOSOC committee.
Asha Kowtal, General Secretary of the National Dalit Women’s movement in India (AIDMAM), and Dalit filmmaker Thenmozhi Soundararajan, brought the campaign to end violence against Dalit women to European decision-makers and public gathering in May. The two women spoke at a number of significant events in Europe to report back on the recent Self-respect march for Dalit women in India.
Dalit Human rights defenders and a team from the IDSN secretariat took part in The European Instrument on Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) 2014 Forum on Protecting Those Who Protect. Asha Kowtal, General Secretary of the National Dalit Women’s movement in India, spoke about Dalit women human rights defenders as part of a panel while Henri Tiphagne raised the issue of shrinking space for human rights defenders in India from the floor.
India’s child rights policies came under sharp attack at a crucial meeting of UN experts on 2-3 June in Geneva. The UN Committee on Rights of Child had met to review the progress made under the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its two Optional Protocols in India.
“The intergenerational nature of caste-based discrimination condemns women to a life of exclusion, marginalization and disadvantage in every sphere of life. Many of those women are denied an education and economic opportunities, and perform dangerous and unprotected work, including … modern forms of slavery,” stated the SR on Violence against Women, Ms. Rashida Manjoo, in her report following her mission to India.
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