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.
On 30 September 2023, Probir Sircar, from IDSN’s affiliate organisation, Parittran, was invited by UPR Info, to deliver a statement during the pre-session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Bangladesh in Palais des Nations, Geneva. The event was organised in view of the upcoming Universal Periodic Review of Bangladesh, which will take place on 13 November 2023.
In March 2023, IDSN, Parittran, Bangladesh Dalit and Excluded Rights Movement, DALIT, and Nagorik Uddyog collaboratively submitted a report to the Universal Periodic Review Secretariat of the UN. This report, based on consultations ongoing since 2018, highlighted the situation of Dalits in Bangladesh.
IDSN highlighted the need to keep caste discrimination on the international agenda through recommendations, meeting with Permanent Missions and statements at Interactive Dialogues made by IDSN affiliates. Swapon Kumar Das, the Executive Director of DALIT in Khulna, Bangladesh read out a statement at the Interactive Dialogue on the Special Rapporteur (SR) on climate change. Jarna Das working for Parittran in Khulna, Bangladesh, also an affiliate of IDSN’s, read a statement at the Interactive Dialogue on the Special Rapporteur on trafficking, and Kalpana Biswakarma, part of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights in New Delhi, India, a member of IDSN, prepared a statement to be read at the Interactive Dialogue on the Special Rapporteur on Poverty.
Following IDSN’s ECOSOC accreditation last year, we were delighted to formally sponsor and host our first side event at the 53rd UN Human Rights Council. It took place on Wednesday 5 July 2023 and focused on ‘Addressing the intersection of caste and gender-based violence in South Asia’. The side-event was a great success with good participation and was also livestreamed. We thank the speakers, participants and co-sponsors: International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), Lutheran World Federation (LWF), FORUM-ASIA, Minority Rights Group and Human Rights Watch (HRW); and supporting organisations Dalit Human Rights Defenders Network (DHRDNet), The Blue Club, Feminist Dalit Organisation (FEDO), National Council of Women Leaders (NCWL), for making this a wonderful event. Do read the full article on the event and the statements by the speakers.
IDSN submitted a Joint NGO report on the situation of Dalits in Bangladesh in advance of the review of Bangladesh for the UPR mechanisms fourth cycle. The report critically evaluates Bangladesh's three previous cycles of the UPR, in 2009, 2013, and 2018, focusing on recommendations concerning ethnic and religious minorities and the Anti-Discrimination Bill accepted by the Government of Bangladesh (GoB). It also offers a comprehensive look at the country's progress in addressing caste discrimination and protecting Dalit rights, while shedding light on the work that still needs to be done.
GA report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief – UNGA77
In June, IDSN and a group of other civil society organisations met with Ahmed Shaheed, the current Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief, in Brussels.
UNITED NATIONS: Five out of six multidimensionally poor people in India are from lower tribes or castes, according to a new analysis on global multidimensional poverty released by the United Nations on Thursday.
The report covers key developments and activities within IDSN’s work under the thematic areas Dalit women and gender justice, business and human rights and equality and participation, within the United Nations, European Union, and communications and networking programmes.
“Low-grade, unskilled sanitation workers often face social stigma and discrimination. This is especially true when sanitation is linked to a caste-based structure and often allocated to castes perceived to be lower in the caste hierarchy, such as in India and Bangladesh, where sanitation work is perceived to belong to the Dalit caste. This stigma compounds the social ostracizing and limitations on social mobility that workers face and often results in intergenerational discrimination, where children of sanitation workers often struggle to escape the vicious cycle of limited opportunities and sanitation work.” “[In Bangladesh] Many live in segregated sweeper colonies, which are unhygienic slumlike areas offering poor and overcrowded living conditions. Dalits (low-caste Hindus) and Christian and Muslim Bengalis” "challenges include combating the systemic discrimination Dalits face, which affects their education and real opportunities to become entrepreneurs, and the multiple layers of subcontracting that enable manual scavenging to continue without oversight or enforcement of laws by local authorities"
IDSN participated actively in the 11th Session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues from the 29-30 November, under the theme "Statelessness: A Minority Issue". IDSN members from Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan presented on how Dalits in reality often suffer de facto statelessness, due to extreme marginalization and lack of access to rights. Read the IDSN news article on the forum here.
Moni Rani Das, born and raised in a “cleaners’ colony”—poor and segregated settlements where street cleaners and domestic workers live—in Dhaka, Bangladesh, never imagined that she would be advocating for her rights and those of nearly 3 million Dalit [1] women of her country. Today, she is the first Dalit person to be part of the National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh.
IDSN, the Bangladesh Dalit and Excluded Rights Movement (BDERM) and Nagorik Uddyog submitted a joint report to the UPR process and distributed a factsheet with recommendations on protecting the human rights of Dalits in Bangladesh.
Despite ample information provided by the UN system itself and civil society groups working on Dalit rights in Bangladesh, only one recommendation addressing the rights abuses faced by Dalits was brought forward at the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the human rights situation in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh was reviewed by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from 15-16 March 2018. An IDSN delegation, including Dalit representatives from Bangladesh, took part in the review where several issues relating to caste-based discrimination were discussed. Ahead of the review IDSN and its members in Bangladesh - BDERM and NNMC submitted a joint report for the consideration of the committee. BDERM also issued a press release on the review.
Bangladesh is scheduled for consideration by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women during its 65th session, on 8 November. Bangladesh Dalit and Excluded Rights Movement (BDERM) and IDSN has jointly submitted an alternative report focusing on the situation for Dalit women in Bangladesh, who face discrimination at multiple levels as they are discriminated by the dominant caste and other groups in society. While other groups of women and some Dalit men are moving forward in education, economic empowerment, access to justice and government services, Dalit women are left behind.
IDSN members the Bangladesh Dalit and Excluded Rights Movement (BDERM) and Network of Non-Mainstreamed Marginalized Communities (NNMC), took part in the UN Human Rights Committee (CCPR) review of Bangladesh in March, 2017.