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 report is focused on contemporary forms of slavery affecting persons belonging to ethnic, religious and linguistic minority communities. In that context, the Special Rapporteur identifies the main causes of contemporary forms of slavery affecting these groups and the main manifestations, such as chattel slavery; forced and bonded labour; domestic servitude; sexual slavery; child and forced marriage; and child labour.
Tomoya Obokata, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, today welcomed progress in strengthening Mauritania’s legal framework and building the political will to combat slavery, but cautioned that much work still lay ahead.
Open letter re Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive proposal1 adopted by the European Commission on February 23rd. Which lays down rules for companies to respect human rights and the environment in global value chains.
India has approximately 100 million Dalit women. Sixty million of them are employed in domestic labour. 2006 Right Livelihood Laureate Ruth Manorama has dedicated her life to achieving equality and social justice for them, both at the national and international level.
In Pakistan, forced marriages and forced conversions of women and girls affect Hindu and Christian minorities disproportionately. There are frequent reports that persons belonging to these minorities are kidnapped and subjugated to physical and emotional abuse involving threats of violence.
On 14 November the Alderbugh Cinema DocFest invited the IDSN Executive Director to speak about Dalit women human rights defenders and caste in South Asia at the screening of the award winning documentary Writing with Fire.
Sanitation workers in Mumbai were declared ‘volunteers’ under a dubious privatisation plan, and denied their rightful wages. A protest led to further injustice.
Ms Narkar is one of dozens of women Ms Pradeep has been training to help rape survivors - especially those from the Dalit community - get justice.
The trial for the Rukum (West) mass murder is still underway, more than a year since the incident. The families of the victims are getting increasingly worried if justice will ever be delivered.
The 20-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped and murdered by four Thakur men in UP’s Hathras district last September.
The gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in a village in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh last September had caused a public outcry and weeks of protests. But a year on, the family of the victim has told Al Jazeera that their hopes for justice are fading as the case has dragged on. Of the 104 witnesses only 15 have deposed in the court so far, said Seema Kushwaha, the victim’s lawyer.
A three-part report examining the challenges and opportunities available for the Dalit justice defenders’ community across South Asia in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India.
Dalit women human rights defenders across the country are working bravely and tirelessly to support survivors of sexual violence; sometimes at great risk to their own personal safety and security. Dalit WHRDs need to be supported by the government and other NGOs, and recognised for their exemplary work and struggle for social justice.
In the present case of gang rape and murder of 19 years old girl of Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, every statutory provision prescribed by law of the land (especially PoA Act) to ensure relief and justice to the victim’s family was set aside by the police and administration of the State.
Dalit women and girls are often subjected to more severe or aggravated forms of sexual violence, such as gang rapes or rape with murder, and there is commonly a collective nature to these crimes, with offenders from dominant castes acting in groups to commit offences.
In connection with their participation in the 48 th 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.