The UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, Githu Muigai, has expressed his serious concern about the continuing existence of the caste system and described caste discrimination as a form of “societal” structural racial discrimination.
IDSN urges President Barack Obama to raise the issue of caste discrimination on his upcoming visit to India
Two United Nations Independent Experts have published a joint report from their visit to Bangladesh in December 2009. The experts note that Dalits suffer from "terrible living conditions."
Nepalese NGOs have prepared a joint submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The report includes a number of recommendations to the Nepalese government on how to address caste discrimination.
UN Special Rapporteurs and other human rights experts are meeting this week in Geneva. IDSN has called on these mandate holders to strengthen their efforts to address caste discrimination.
IDSN has issued a position paper on the interrelations between caste, descent and race. It argues that the debate on whether caste is similar to race is unproductive and that it is time to move beyond semantics.
A prominent UN expert considers the draft UN principles and guidelines on caste discrimination an 'important contribution' to the global struggle against this form of discrimination.
As IDSN celebrates its tenth anniversary on 10 March, the struggle for Dalit rights is gaining increasing international momentum, including an endorsement by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Much, however, remains to be done if one of the world’s most serious human rights issues, which affects 260 million people, is to be eliminated.
The Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Maxime Verhagen, has made a strong statement on caste discrimination at the 13th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has made caste discrimination one of the thematic priorities in its struggle against discrimination and impunity in 2010-2011.
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