The international community
should take action on caste-based discrimination which violates the rights of
260 million people globally, a group of non-governmental organisations said at a
news conference on caste-based discrimination and the Durban Review
Conference.
(Source: International Dalit Solidarity Network)
Geneva, April 22, 2009 – The international community
should take action on caste-based discrimination which violates the rights of
260 million people globally, a group of non-governmental organisations including
Human Rights Watch, Lutheran World Federation, Pax Romana, International
Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), International
Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN), National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights
(NCDHR) and Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), said at a
news conference on caste-based discrimination and the Durban Review
Conference.

The Durban Review Conference was organised to evaluate progress towards
the goals set by the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, in 2001. Millions of
victims of caste-based discrimination, hoping that the conference would serve as
a platform to highlight their problems, were left deeply
disappointed.

"Caste discrimination is one of the most important issues being
left out of this conference and because of the predominant attention to one
specific issue, all other concerns within the field of racism, discrimination,
xenophobia and racial intolerance, are being excluded", said Peter Prove of the
Lutheran World Federation, who has worked for many years towards eliminating
caste discrimination. Dalits have long claimed that caste- and descent-based discrimination
falls under the remit of this conference. Despite this, the final outcome
document makes no reference to caste-based
discrimination.

"Caste discrimination is a major global human rights issue, that needs to
be effectively dealt with at the international level", said Clive Baldwin,
senior legal advisor at Human Rights Watch. "As the UN racial discrimination
committee has made perfectly clear, caste discrimination falls under the Race
Convention, and thereby within the scope of this review conference".

Even as the issue is ignored at the conference, caste discrimination
remains a massive problem in countries like India, where ongoing elections have
once again exposed the challenges faced by Dalits. NCDHR, which has been
monitoring the elections, has found that many Dalits are not being allowed to
freely exercise their democratic rights, and are being beaten, threatened and
obstructed from voting at local polling stations.

"This Durban Review Conference has totally eliminated any mention of
caste or discrimination based on work and descent", said Paul Divakar, of the
National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) in India, where more than 167
million from the Dalit communities suffer from caste discrimination.

Representatives from the Dalit communities present at the news conference
also included Fatima Burnad and Dibakar Poricha who explained how Dalits were
subjected to violence, rape, inhumane untouchability practices, and suffered
routine discrimination, socially, culturally and politically. They also
explained that due to the high level of impunity in cases involving Dalit
victims, they have no way of asserting their rights through the judicial system.

Pointing out that victims of caste based discrimination suffer a hidden
apartheid of segregation, modern-day slavery and other forms of discrimination
as a result of having been born into a marginalised group or caste, Rikke
Nöhrlind, Co-ordinator of the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN),
stated, "This issue has been skilfully hidden by certain governments and Dalits
are simply being treated as lesser human beings and denied
justice".

Determined to keep fighting for their rights and to try and get the
international community to listen, a sizeable delegation of Dalit
representatives have travelled to Geneva to stage a number of side events and
raise their voices against the wall of silence they are met with at the Durban
Review Conference.