[WCAR] CERD adopts historic document to address global caste based discrimination

edited by Minority Rights Group, 23/08/2002

Yesterday, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD) adopted an historic document focusing on discrimination based on 
'caste and analogous systems of inherited status'. The adoption of this 
document - called a General Recommendation - follows a thematic discussion 
convened by CERD on 8-9 August, in which the global dimensions of caste 
discrimination and similar forms of social hierarchy were confronted and 
challenged.

Members of the International Dalit Solidarity Network warmly welcomed this 
important new development in the international human rights arena.

It is not the first time that the controversial and politically-sensitive 
issue of discrimination against the Dalits (also known as 'Untouchables') 
of South Asia has been raised in UN forums. CERD itself has remarked upon 
this issue in the context of reviewing reports by, amongst others, India, 
Nepal and Bangladesh.

And the issue was a key focus of the civil society advocacy in the context 
of the World Conference Against Racism in August/September 2001, though 
governments failed to acknowledge the concern in the official outcome of 
the World Conference. But caste-based and similar forms of discrimination 
in other countries is generally little discussed or understood, either at 
the international or national levels.

The CERD thematic discussion, and the General Recommendation which has 
emanated from it, have provided a framework for addressing the global 
dimensions of this human rights problem, which affects an estimated 260 
million people worldwide. During the thematic discussion, CERD members 
heard testimony from 23 individuals, representing the situations of Dalits 
of South Asia, Burakumin of Japan, Osu of Nigeria, and casted communities 
in Senegal, Niger, Somalia and Kenya.

The General Recommendation addresses discrimination based on caste and 
other forms of inherited status in the areas of employment, education, 
housing and the administration of justice, as well as from the perspectives 
of women and children and in the use of the media. In discussions which ran 
concurrently with the CERD thematic discussion, members of the UN 
Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights - the 
think-tank of the Commission on Human Rights - decided to extend their 
related study on discrimination based on work and descent. In a report 
presented last year by former Sub-Commission member Mr. R.K.W. Goonesekere 
of Sri Lanka addressed caste discrimination and similar phenomena in India, 
Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, and Japan. Sub-Commission members Asbjörn Eide 
(of Norway) and Yozo Yokota (of Japan) have now been given the task of 
extending this study to relevant situations in other regions, especially 
Africa.

Mr. Paul Divakar, Convenor of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights 
(NCDHR) in India, agreed that "many constitutional provisions and laws have 
been promulgated, but there are still large areas unimplemented and yet to 
be enforced." According to Divakar, "the flood gates are now being flung 
open for addressing caste-based discrimination at the United Nations. This 
will pressurise the government in India to take the issue of enforcement 
more seriously."

Joint statement endorsed by the following members of the International 
Dalit Solidarity Network: · International Movement Against all forms of 
Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) · Minority Rights Group International 
(MRG) · India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) · The Lutheran World 
Federation (LWF) · National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), India 
· Buraku Liberation League (BLL), Japan