Three Dalit women from Andhra Pradesh took part in a protest outside the conference area of the UN climate talks by ceremonially burning their conference badges. They felt that their voices had not been heard in the COP15 process.
Two Independent Experts - on water and sanitation and on human rights and extreme poverty - expressed serious concern about the human rights situation of Dalits during their visit to Bangladesh earlier this month.
In her Human Rights Day statement, UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay mentioned “members of particular castes” as a group that faces discrimination.
At the 64th session of the UN General Assembly the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, Mr. Githu Muigai, expressed his serious concern about caste discrimination and recommended States to “engage in substantive discussions on this topic”. He specifically called on States to take action on the draft UN principles and guidelines to eliminate caste discrimination.
IDSN urges the UN Forum on Minority issues to consider ways to enhance political participation, especially for Dalit women.
In an interview with US weekly The Nation, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says that caste systems can be removed “through an expression of international outrage”.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, calls on the international community to ‘come together’ and support caste affected-communities ‘as it did when it helped put an end to apartheid.’
The world’s largest English-language newspaper, The Times of India, called the UN’s stance on caste discrimination an “embarrassment” to India, and the BBC World Service aired a live debate programme on caste discrimination on 29 September.
Dalit representatives from South Asia and Japan met the leading human rights official, Madam Navi Pillay, in Geneva on 16 September. The High Commissioner assured that all forms of discrimination – including caste discrimination – will remain a priority concern for her office.
The government of Nepal is setting an international example in addressing one of the world’s most serious human rights issues. It strongly supports the UN guidelines on caste discrimination as an effective mechanism to eliminate a human rights outrage that affects 260 million people globally.
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