IDSN facilitated a series of advocacy meetings and outreach activities in Brussels involving Dalit human rights defenders that took place in December 2025. The visit created an important opportunity to bring first-hand perspectives from South Asia into exchanges with EU institutions on caste-based discrimination, human rights and democratic governance and contribute to ongoing strategy work on discrimination based on work and descent.

As part of the programme, Rup Sunar of Dignity Initiative, Nepal, and Aiswarya Rao of Better World Shelter, India, met with European Parliament officials working on South Asia and human rights issues. This included policy staff supporting the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Delegation for relations with South Asia. The meetings focused on the continuing human rights challenges faced by Dalit communities and the importance of sustained EU attention to caste-based discrimination in its parliamentary engagement and external action.

Aiswarya Rao also took part in the Brussels EU NGO Human Rights Forum as a panellist in a thematic plenary on intersectionality. The session was moderated by Mary James Gill of the Center for Law and Justice, Pakistan, an IDSN member. Her contribution helped draw attention to the intersecting forms of discrimination experienced by Dalit communities, and particularly by Dalit women, while underlining the need to include caste perspectives more systematically in international human rights discussions.

At the same Forum, IDSN delegates, together with IDSN members Beena Pallical of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights and Mary Gill of CLG, participated in a Strategy Lab on discrimination based on work and descent. The session brought together EU officials, activist representatives of communities affected by discrimination, as well as organisations working in solidarity with them. Discussions explored lessons from the EU Roma Strategy and considered how these could help inform elements of a future EU Strategy on Discrimination based on Work and Descent.

The visit also included meetings with European Commission officials working on gender equality, human rights and democratic governance, as well as Members of the European Parliament engaged on South Asia and human rights files. In addition, the delegation met with European External Action Service officials responsible for India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. These exchanges contributed to ongoing dialogue with EU institutions and supported follow-up on how caste-based discrimination can be addressed more consistently in EU external engagement.

Through these meetings and forum discussions, the Brussels visit helped strengthen advocacy with EU stakeholders and reaffirmed the importance of ensuring that Dalit perspectives are included in policy processes on human rights, equality and external affairs.