On the eve of today’s EU-India Summit, Human Rights Watch has written a letter to the EU addressing numerous key human rights issues. These include the failure of the Indian government to protect the country’s Dalit population.
The European Instrument for Democary and Human Rights has released a call for proposals where particularly LOT 1 - To Support Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) organisations working at grassroots level could be relevant for Dalit rights organisations to apply for.You will find all information necessary to apply in the Guidelines for Applicants. The deadline for Concept Note application is set on 1/10/2015.
European Parliament urgency resolution on the situation in Nepal raising concern for caste discrimination.
On 16 June, IDSN was invited for an exchange with the EU Human Rights Working Group (COHOM) in the Council of the EU and the European External Action Service
The Annual Action Plan 2015 for the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) has integrated the rights of persons affected by caste based discrimination as a cross-cutting concern. It makes specific mention of persons affected by caste discrimination in action documents on support to civil society, in its actions to support protection and promotion of human rights, human rights defenders, universities for human rights and democracy postgraduate education and in supporting key international actors – the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
As they work to find common ground, we urge all parties to ensure that the new Constitution also protects and extends fundamental human rights and freedoms to all its citizens (including equal access to citizenship rights for all Nepali children), without discrimination of any kind, including by caste...
The report includes key references to caste-based discrimination in the chapters on India, Nepal and Pakistan. References on caste-discrimination in humanitarian aid, caste-based violence, Dalit women, Dalit human rights defenders and Dalit religious minorities are included.
013 EP Resolution on Caste Discrimination states that, “… to promote an enabling environment for civil society and human rights defenders working with people affected by caste discrimination in order to ensure their security and avoid any impediments to, or stigmatization or restriction of, their work; stresses that such an environment should include access to funding, cooperation with UN human rights bodies and Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) accreditation.”
By Lien Santermans
Rape, abuse common for India’s Dalit: 260 million ‘untouchables’ seek EU help. As India, the world’s largest democracy heads to the polls, New Europe spoke with Henri Tiphange and Asha Kowtal, two leading activists for the Dalit, the untouchables.by Andy Carling
Dalit Human rights defenders and a team from the IDSN secretariat took part in The European Instrument on Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) 2014 Forum on Protecting Those Who Protect. Asha Kowtal, General Secretary of the National Dalit Women’s movement in India, spoke about Dalit women human rights defenders as part of a panel while Henri Tiphagne raised the issue of shrinking space for human rights defenders in India.
The European Parliament are urging EU member states to address caste discrimination at the March session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC25), currently underway. IDSN has issued recommendations for the HRC25 and Navi Pillay and Ban Ki-moon mention caste in their contributions to the council session.
On Thursday, the European Parliament, which consists of elected representatives from the 28 member countries of the European Union, passed a resolution that condemned caste-based discrimination as a human rights violation.