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FI Side Event on Ensuring Access to Justice For Dalits : Good Practices And Key Challenges

people walking on rural road

Ms. Rita Izsák, the UN Independent Expert on minority issues said, in her recorded opening speech, that Caste-based discrimination is still a reality faced by many communities around the globe. Despite the adoption of strong law prohibiting discrimination, minority rights protection frequently requires measures that go beyond non-discrimination and recognize that disadvantaged communities may need focused attention to ensure their equality.  In her conclusion, she underlined to include social dimension analysis of vulnerable group in the policy discussion of the post-2015 development agenda.

Four Dalit activists from Nepal, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and the representative of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) shared their experience of good practise and key challenges to promote access to justice for Dalits.  The discussion was moderated by Mr. Peter Prove from the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance.

Ms. Katia Chirizzi,  from OHCHR and Mr.  Bhakta Bishwakarma, President of Nepal National Dalit Social Welfare Organization, shared the good practise on the adoption of the Caste-based Discrimination and Untouchability Crime Elimination and Punishment Act, by Nepal’s interim Parliament in May 2011. This Act prohibits the practices of ‘untouchability’ both in the public and private sphere. Dalit groups have advocated for two years to ensure that the law would not only extend to the public sphere, but also to the private. It is the first time that a law, which criminalises ‘untouchability’ practices in the private sphere, has ever been introduced. The challenge now is in its implementation.

Ms. Ashwa Kowtal, from the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights explained the challenges of Dalit, especially Dalit women in India. The gang-raped of a student in December 2012 accelerated the pressure to amend the penal code on the sexual assault. The Dalit rights group submitted a number of proposals for amendments. However, the discussion in the parliament seemed to ignore the possibility of specific recommendations for minorities, including the Dalit women.

The situation of Dalit in Pakistan is not better off. According to Mr. Sono Khangharani from Pakistan Dalit Solidarity Network, there is no specific law to prohibit discrimination on the basis of caste. In Pakistan the term Scheduled Caste is used rather than Dalit. According to him, around 90% of the Hindus and Christians are Dalit.  Many of them are discriminated.  More than 90% of the bonded labour victims are the Dalit. The main challenge is the adoption of a legal framework for the protection of the rights of minorities, including the Dalits.

PDFIn Bangladesh, the Dalit groups have been doing intensive campaign to promote Dalit rights. Mr. Zakir Hossain, the representative of Bangladesh Dalit and Excluded Rights Movement share his experience in pressuring the authority to take up the issue of discrimination against Dalit. As result, the National Commission on Human Rights of Bangladesh is now preparing a draft law aiming to change the social, political and economic conditions of the country’s Dalit community.