180 entries found
his report documents the experience of Dalits, especially Dalit women, with systemic caste-based discrimination in Nepal, including the practice of untouchability, and the challenges they face in accessing justice. The report uses a human rights and intersectional lens, recognizing that systemic discrimination and inequality are the cause and consequence of several human rights violations, and that racism is a system of unequal power relations, which lead to human rights violations and barriers in accessing rights.
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 delegates from South Asia spoke out on the human rights issues faced by Dalits at the UN Forum on Minority Issues in December 2022. Speaking on the panel and from the floor, human rights defenders from India and Nepal shared their experience of discrimination and injustice and their thoughts on the way forward for their communities.
The Working Group on the UPR reviewed India in November 2022 and the outcome report was adopted at the Human Rights Council 52 March session in 2023. This report includes recommendations on Dalits, caste, hate speech, racism, water and sanitation, women and girls' rights and many more.
UPR India 4th Cycle, list of recommendations on caste and related topics
The Sexual Rights Initiative, National Council of Women Leaders (NCWL), Dalit Human Rights Defenders Network (DHRDNet), AWID, Her Rights Initiative (HRI) and IDSN have worked together to create a submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to inform the elaboration of its General Recommendation n°37 on racial discrimination and the right to health. The report recommends that a tripartite approach is necessary in order for states to meet their obligations under CERD Article 5.
FEDO newsletter
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.
In a controversial move, which runs contrary to the current Modi government policy, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which falls under the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in a new report has asked the Government of India (GoI) to ensure that the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2015 – called anti-atrocities Act – should be applied to not just those Dalits which are supposed to part of Hindu religion.
Dalits and members of India’s other marginalised communities are lagging behind more privileged groups in terms of health and access to healthcare, Oxfam India reports. The gap has been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 30 Buddhist families in Rohi Pimpalgaon village in Modkhed taluka of Nanded district faced social boycott for close to a week for raising slogans in praise of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in the village.
In connection with their participation in the 44th Human Rights Council session, states are encouraged to consider the ongoing and systemic practice of discrimination based on work and descent, also known as caste-based discrimination, affecting more than 260 million people globally.
In connection with their participation in the 43rd Human Rights Council session, States are encouraged to consider the ongoing and systemic practice of discrimination based on work and descent, also known as caste-based discrimination, affecting more than 260 million people globally.
Therapeutic techniques work on the assumption that the cause of distress is only within the individual. However, an individual’s mental health is also affected by various forms of systemic discrimination. So for Dalits, therapy involves narrating trauma from one therapist to another, in the hope that they will eventually find a caste-sensitive professional.
The Dalit Solidarity Network – Finland (DSNFi) celebrated its tenth anniversary as an online celebration on 16 November 2020. The celebration brought together more than thirty participants from Nepal, India, UK and many parts of Finland.
A survey of domestic workers revealed across six northeastern Indian states, a large majority of maids, cooks and other domestic staff worked seven days a week and were not given a single day of annual leave without having their pay docked.
An initiative to bring together various important resources on the issues of manual scavenging and sanitation work
India’s Sanitation Workers seek immediate help from the government, as they fight for better safety gears and equal treatment.
Sanitation workers’ vital roles put them on the frontline – often forgotten – during COVID-19 lockdowns. Already marginalised in many societies, how has the pandemic affected their safety and wellbeing? Shahrukh Mirza and Andrés Hueso discuss our research with sanitation workers across South Asia, highlighting how to support them through the pandemic and beyond.
DSN Statement – We strongly urge governments and companies with supply chains in South Asia, to take measures to urgently protect migrant and informal workers, including Dalits, against a loss of income, social benefits, shelter and a means to feed themselves and their families, as Covid-19 measures and repercussions threaten their lives and livelihoods.
