40 entries found
At a UN Human Rights Council side event on the right to sanitation, Dalit human rights defender Manjula Pradeep highlighted how caste and gender discrimination shape who bears the burden of unsafe and degrading sanitation work. Drawing attention to the risks faced by Dalit women engaged in hazardous sanitation work in India, she urged governments to end manual scavenging in practice, ensure safe working conditions and alternative livelihoods, and include sanitation workers and Dalit women in decision-making. “Sanitation cannot be called dignified if it depends upon another person’s indignity,” she said. The event was co-organised by IDSN and reinforced that progress on sanitation must be measured not only by access to facilities, but by whether systems protect everyone’s health, dignity, equality, and rights.
IDSN brought together #DalitVoicesForJustice, UN experts, civil society and Member States for our HRC62 side-event, Caste, Gender and Power: #DalitVoicesForJustice on 2 July at the UN Human Rights Council. The event highlighted the urgent need to explicitly address caste and gender discrimination as a root cause of widespread human rights violations across South Asia. This was underscored by powerful addresses from the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, Dr. Ashwini K.P. and the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Prof. Nicolas Levrat.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has issued wide-ranging recommendations to India to strengthen action against caste discrimination, reaffirming that caste-based discrimination is fully covered by the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Following its August 2026 review of India, CERD raised concerns over persistent segregation, caste-based violence, discrimination against Dalit women, barriers to justice, manual scavenging, bonded labour and discrimination in education and access to services. The Committee called for stronger implementation of existing protections, improved access to remedies and better data on the situation of Dalits. Ahead of the review, IDSN and Minority Rights Group International submitted a joint alternative report documenting continuing caste-based discrimination and gaps in implementation of previous CERD recommendations.
At the Eighteenth session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues in 2025, IDSN delegates highlighted the urgent need to address caste discrimination, violence and exclusion across South Asia. Dalit delegates from South Asia raised concerns around institutional impunity, structural marginalisation of Dalit women and the shrinking civic space for human rights defenders. They also emphasised the vital contributions of Dalit women workers and activists in fostering accountability, dignity and social cohesion at local and global levels
In a significant development at the 55th session of the Human Rights Council in March 2024, Bangladesh’s review under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) highlighted critical recommendations focused on eliminating caste-based discrimination, with specific references to the plight of the Dalit community. These recommendations were crucially also accepted by the state.
An IDSN delegation of Dalit human rights defenders participated in the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights held on 27-29 November as well as the UN Forum on Minority Issues, held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva from 30 November – 1 December 2023. The delegation made an important impact giving statements and participating in panels, sessions and events.
During the 4th Cycle of the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of India, the country received recommendations on caste, including the need to ensure implementation of legislation to protect Dalits from discrimination and violence, develop an action plan to prevent caste discrimination in labour, protect Dalit women and girls from violence and sexual abuse, ensure equal access to services, and to step up efforts to end caste discrimination.
IDSN was delighted to welcome representatives from Dalit Solidarity Networks in Germany, UK, Finland and Norway to Copenhagen for a two-day meeting from 8-9 February. IDSN International Associate Arisa from The Netherlands also took part in the meeting and special guest, Priyadharsini Palani, from The Blue Club, made an inspiring presentation on the organisation’s work on amplifying the voices of Dalit women.
Following his visit to Nepal that started on 29 November, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, Olivier De Schutter, released a statement highlighting the persistent interconnections between caste and poverty in Nepal. The Rapporteur also raised issues of caste violence and the need to do more to ensure meaningful political representation of Dalit women in Nepal.
On the 30 September, during the Interactive Dialogue with the HRC Advisory Committee, Pradip Pariyar, from IDSN member organisation Samata Foundation, highlighted the need for the UN system to keep engaged in eradicating caste-based discrimination.
IDSN delivered strong statements at the UN Forum on Minority Issues on the theme “Hate Speech, Social Media and Minorities” highlighting the need to address caste-hate speech. The Forum was held in Geneva and virtually from 19-20 November 2020.
The need for more attention to be paid to intersectional caste and gender discrimination and for transforming mindsets through human rights education and awareness raising, was highlighted at the UN multi-stakeholder hearing ‘Accelerating the Realization of Gender Equality and the Empowerment of all Women and Girls’ on 21 July.
IDSN submitted a report detailing the challenges faced by Dalit women and girls in Pakistan, for the review of the government’s report on compliance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW review), which took place Tuesday 11th February.
Participants and presenters shared stories, ideas and strategies at the workshop Minority Women: 25 Years as Agents of Change Together, organised by IDSN and the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) at the Beijing+25 Regional CSO Forum in Bangkok, on 26 November. The presenters included Judith Anne Lal, from the National Dalit Movement for Justice-NCDHR and the event was moderated by IDSN board member, Megumi Komori from IMADR. A video from the event was also shared.
Dalit human rights defenders and UN experts raise concerns over intersectional caste and gender discrimination and its adverse impact on access to human rights, at the Dalit Women and Gender Justice side-event at the UN Human Rights Council’s 41st Session in Geneva. On 25 June 2019, IDSN International Associate IMADR, and others organised a side-event during the 41st Session of the Human Rights Council, on Dalit women and gender justice. The panel was composed of Dubravka Simonovic, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Renu Sijapati, General Secretary of the Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO-Nepal) and Abirami Jotheeswaran, from the National Dalit Movement for Justice-National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NDMJ-NCDHR). The event was moderated by Henri Tiphagne, from Peoples’ Watch, in India.
Renu Sijapati, from the Feminist Dalit Organisation – FEDO Nepal, delivered an oral statement at the 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council in June 2019, encouraging Nepal to implement the recommendations in the UN Nepal visit report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women. The visit took place in October 2018.
On Friday 8 March, Ruth Manorama, a Dalit human rights defender, delivered a statement, co-sponsored by the International Movement Against All Forms of Racial Discrimination and by the Right Livelihood Award (in solidarity with IDSN), during the 40th regular session of the Human Rights Council. She also spoke on the panel at the Right Livelihood side-event on Women Human Rights Defenders.
In IDSN’s 10th December statement on the occasion of the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we share our dream that one day love and respect for human rights will prevail over brutal caste oppression and injustice.
UN experts on gender discrimination voiced concerns over the difficulties elected Dalit women face in Nepal, the need for proportional inclusion of Dalit women in the Judiciary, and extreme poverty faced by many Dalit women as a result of discrimination and stigmatization. The comments were made by the CEDAW committee members at the review of the 6th periodic report of Nepal, on 23 October 2018.
IDSN engaged with the 39th Session of the Human Rights Council (HRC), held in the Palais des Nations from the 10th to the 28th of September 2018. IDSN delivered statements, lobbied Member States and OHCHR staff and met with the High Commissioner and the NGO Committee. Read a summary of IDSN's interventions in this IDSN news piece.
