“The government of Nepal is setting an international example in addressing one of the world’s most serious human rights issues,” the Tokyo-based International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism said in a statement made available to Ecumenical News International today (September 17).
The coalition is backed by groupings such as the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the Roman Catholic group, Pax Romana, the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, Anti-Slavery International, Human Rights Watch, and the Copenhagen-based International Dalit Solidarity Network.
“Nepal strongly supports the U.N. guidelines on caste discrimination as an effective mechanism to eliminate a human rights outrage that affects 260 million people globally,” said Rikke Nöhrlind, coordinator of the International Dalit Solidarity Network, which works globally against caste discrimination. Dalit is the term used in South Asia for victims of this severe form of discrimination.
Caste discrimination that affects Dalits, who were once called “untouchables,” has been likened to the former apartheid system of rigid racial segregation in South Africa and the United Nations had earlier been criticized for ignoring Dalits.
Paul Divakar, the convener of the Delhi-based National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights had told ENI in an April interview, “We are totally excluded. There is not a single word in the [U.N.] declaration [about Dalits] … although this is an abominable practice that affects 260 million people.”
Nepal is a former Hindu monarchy that was overthrown by popular protest in 2006. The country formally abolished its 240-year-old monarchy in May 2008 and declared itself a “secular republic.”
The international movement fighting discrimination said, “A new U.N. framework to eliminate caste discrimination, one of the world’s most serious human rights challenges received backing from a number of international actors, including the government of Nepal, the EU presidency, and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“In supporting the U.N. guidelines, Nepal has taken a bold and very significant step. Now other countries must follow suit, especially India, where caste discrimination affects up to 200 million people,” said Nöhrlind.
In Geneva, Nepal’s state minister for general administration, Jeet Bahadur Gautam Darjee, outlined his country’s efforts to “eliminate this scourge from our society.” He confirmed his government’s support for a draft set of U.N. principles and guidelines to eliminate caste discrimination. Darjee said, the guidelines are “a good reference in devising the ways and means to address the issue of caste-based discrimination” during the drafting process of Nepal’s new constitution and he said they would be “useful tools” to reform and develop anti-discriminatory legislation.
During a visit to New Delhi in March 2009, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, a South African, called on India to show global “leadership in combating caste-based discrimination.” On September 16 Pillay met with representatives of Dalit organizations and described caste discrimination as a “vital human rights concern affecting millions of people.”
On September 2, the main governing body of the WCC, its central committee, said caste-based discrimination contradicts the Christian teaching that all are created equal in the image of God. The WCC resolution noted that at least 160 million people in India are known as Dalits, or “oppressed,” “crushed,” and up to 260 million people globally are considered by their own societies as “untouchable.”
