Submitting Organisations - The joint shadow report was submitted by the Feminist Dalit Organisation and the International Dalit Solidarity Network.
This is a summary brief - The full report submitted for the UN CEDAW 2025 review can be downloaded here https://tinyurl.com/IDSN-FEDO-CEDAW2025 Submitting Organisations - The joint shadow report was submitted by the Feminist Dalit Organisation and the International Dalit Solidarity Network. The FEDO is a Dalit women-led Nepalese NGO. FEDO works towards a discrimination-free society where dignity, human-rights, equal participation and benefits from development are afforded to Dalit women. The IDSN is a global membership network advocating and raising awareness for Dalit human rights.
Joint submission by IDSN and Nepal NGOs to the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Woman (CEDAW) - 2024 review of Nepal. Highlight the need for action on caste and gender justice in Nepal.
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.
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.
Despite being prohibited in many countries, slavery is widespread in South Asia. Forced and bonded labour, resulting in a loss of control over labour conditions and terms of work, is often interlinked with the caste system and related types of customary feudal agricultural relationships.
Joint submission by IDSN, DSN Finland, DSN Norway, ARISA and IMADR.
Joint stakeholder submission by PDSN, CLJ PHF, RADHA, Hari Welfare Association, PDO, AF, PILER and IDSN.
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.
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.
The recent controversy around actor-comedian Vir Das’s show ‘I come from two Indias’ sparked a debate around the perception of India on the international front. While Vir talked about various issues in the 6-minute monologue, he did not utter a single word against the darkest reality of India – caste dominance.
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.
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.
This chapter, written by Philip E. Veerman, reviews and critiques the work of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child through the lens of caste- and descent-based discrimination. The chapter explores both the promise and the limitations of the work of the Committee in addressing discrimination that is, in many cases, fundamentally woven into the cultural and the religious practices of a society. In particular, it explores the promise and limitations of the Committee’s work in India, Nepal, and Mauritania to combat caste- and descent-based discrimination, inter alia, through its Concluding Observations. The chapter calls attention to the rights of children who are considered ‘untouchables’ or ‘outcastes.’ The chapter shows the challenges the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) confronts in addressing such discrimination. The chapter concludes by exploring ways the CRC Committee further the potential of the CRC to be an instrument of change.
A Joint Civil Society* Contribution to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) for the adoption of the List of Issues Prior to Reporting on India has regretted that despite the abolition of untouchability enshrined in the Indian Constitution, and a constitutional formal prohibition of discrimination on the ground base of race or caste, under the Constitution, Dalits and other communities affected by discrimination based on descent, including Adivasis, still face de facto discrimination.
In an open letter Members of Parliament express their utmost concern regarding the rising number of grave incidents of rape and sexual violence against Dalit women and girls, which have been taking place in India over the last few years.
A minister’s involvement a high-profile caste discrimination case raises questions of state complacency
India’s government needs to urgently address healthcare shortages amid the world’s fastest-growing Covid-19 crisis and ensure that vulnerable communities have equitable access to treatment, Human Rights Watch said today. Donors and diaspora groups that are rushing assistance to India should encourage the government to end curbs on free speech and to respect human rights in its pandemic response.