Archive | United Nations

Nepal: NDC and OHCHR analyse Untouchability Bill

The National Dalit Commission of Nepal (NDC) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR-Nepal) have called for improvements in a draft bill on caste discrimination.

December 14th, 2010|Nepal, United Nations|

Get updated with IDSN’s November newsletter

The issue of caste discrimination is receiving welcome and significant international attention in a number of places. The IDSN November newsletter is reflecting this trend.

December 1st, 2010|Access to justice, Dalit Women, Manual Scavenging, Programme, United Nations|

UN Special Rapporteur seriously concerned about caste system

The UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, Githu Muigai, has expressed his serious concern about the continuing existence of the caste system and described caste discrimination as a form of “societal” structural racial discrimination.

November 3rd, 2010|United Nations|

Open letter to Barack Obama ahead of his visit to India

IDSN urges President Barack Obama to raise the issue of caste discrimination on his upcoming visit to India

October 18th, 2010|India, South Asia, United Nations|

UN experts concerned about Dalits

Two United Nations Independent Experts have published a joint report from their visit to Bangladesh in December 2009. The experts note that Dalits suffer from "terrible living conditions."

August 24th, 2010|United Nations|

Nepal: NGOs submit report to UN mechanism

Nepalese NGOs have prepared a joint submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The report includes a number of recommendations to the Nepalese government on how to address caste discrimination.

July 13th, 2010|Nepal, United Nations|

IDSN appeals to UN Rapporteurs

UN Special Rapporteurs and other human rights experts are meeting this week in Geneva. IDSN has called on these mandate holders to strengthen their efforts to address caste discrimination.

June 29th, 2010|United Nations|

IDSN analyses caste, descent and race

IDSN has issued a position paper on the interrelations between caste, descent and race. It argues that the debate on whether caste is similar to race is unproductive and that it is time to move beyond semantics.

April 15th, 2010|India, United Nations|

UN expert welcomes caste guidelines

A prominent UN expert considers the draft UN principles and guidelines on caste discrimination an 'important contribution' to the global struggle against this form of discrimination.

March 19th, 2010|United Nations|

IDSN marks tenth anniversary

As IDSN celebrates its tenth anniversary on 10 March, the struggle for Dalit rights is gaining increasing international momentum, including an endorsement by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Much, however, remains to be done if one of the world’s most serious human rights issues, which affects 260 million people, is to be eliminated.

March 8th, 2010|Africa, European Union, United Nations|