(Durban) -- Human Rights Watch said today that caste discrimination is now firmly on the international human rights agenda due to the efforts of Dalit activists at the World Conference Against Racism. The conference concluded Saturday in Durban, South Africa.
"The Indian government tried for a year and a half to deny that caste discrimination is a form of racial discrimination," said Smita Narula, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "But as a result of this conference, even the Secretary-General of the United Nations has acknowledged the gravity of work and descent-based discrimination, and India will have a hard time from now on avoiding international scrutiny."
Although India ultimately succeeded in getting references to caste discrimination removed from the final document, the conference was a watershed nonetheless for the Dalit movement. The Dalit contingent of more than 160 activists was one of the largest and best organized nongovernmental delegations present, and drew strong international support from governments, U.N. officials, and India's own National Human Rights Commission.
"This conference served as a milestone in the grassroots Dalit movement against the crime of untouchability and other forms of caste discrimination worldwide," Narula said. She noted that such discrimination is practiced not only in India and other parts of South Asia but also in Japan, Nigeria, Senegal, and elsewhere.
Human Rights Watch criticized the government of Nepal for bowing to Indian pressure on the caste issue, despite its August 2001 proclamation to abolish the untouchability that affects 4.5 million Nepalese Dalits.
The declaration produced by a parallel NGO conference affirmed the conclusions of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights that untouchability, bonded labor, manual scavenging and other caste-based abuses are repugnant and insidious forms of racial discrimination.
In a 60-page report released during the NGO forum, Human Rights Watch noted that caste discrimination affects 250 million people worldwide.
