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IDSN's latest newsletter on caste and human rights
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Caste-hate speech highlighted at the 2020 UN Minority Forum

IDSN delivered strong statements at the UN Forum on Minority Issues on the theme “Hate Speech, Social Media and Minorities” highlighting the need to address caste-hate speech. The Forum was held in Geneva and virtually from 19-20 November 2020. In this article we sum up the key points made and link to the statements in full.
Read the IDSN article on the UN Minority Forum

South Asia: Authorities must urgently protect sanitation workers risking their lives on the COVID-19 front lines

On the occasion of World Toilet Day 2020, IDSN, WaterAid and Amnesty International released a joint statement on the urgent need to protect sanitation workers in South Asia and ensure that the ban on manual scavenging is upheld and workers are properly rehabilitated and recompensed. The caste dimensions of sanitation work in South Asia were highlighted. WaterAid also launched a resource repository on sanitation workers in India with a wealth of reports, videos and information about the issues faced. This video is a good illustration of the problems faced by Dalit women forced to undertake manual scavenging in India.
Video on manual scavenging in India by WaterAid
Read the statement

Petition: UN - Act now and hold member states accountable for the elimination of caste-based discrimination

The Dalit Human Rights Defenders Network has launched a petition calling for the United Nations to build forward better on descent and caste-based discrimination with concrete recommendations for civil society, UN human rights council members and UN member states, UN special procedures mandate holders and treaty bodies.
Sign the petition

Report: Justice is denied in caste-based sexual violence cases

The report ‘Justice Denied: Sexual Violence and Intersectional Discrimination’ just released by Equality Now in collaboration with Swabhiman Society, looks at barriers to accessing justice for Dalit women and girls in Haryana, India. The report analyses 40 cases of sexual violence in Haryana and highlights their journey through the criminal justice system. It describes the specific barriers faced by Dalit survivors of sexual violence and presents urgent recommendations to the Indian and Haryana State Governments to end caste-based sexual violence. 
 
Read the key findings and recommendations

EU Human Rights chief discusses caste violence with Dalit women activists

EU Special Representative for Human Rights, Eamon Gilmore and India and Nepal desk representatives of the European External Action Service (EEAS) met with IDSN and Dalit women activists from the Feminist Dalit Organisation – Nepal (FEDO) and All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM-NCDHR) to discuss caste-based violence against Dalit women in their respective countries. At the meeting on 24 November, Mr. Gilmore assured the women that the EU remained committed to working to end caste-based violence and discrimination.

Eamon Gilmore's tweet from the meeting
Read the IDSN article on the meeting

UN experts raise concern over caste-based slavery

UN experts spoke out about the links between discrimination and slavery at the webinar “Contemporary Slavery & Racial Discrimination: Civil Society Support to Survivors during the Pandemic” organised by the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, the UN Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, the Geneva Human Rights Platform and the UK Mission in Geneva, on 2 December. Several experts raised concern over caste discrimination and caste-based occupations, as well as the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable groups. 
 
Read the IDSN article on the webinar

Online survey collecting reports of ‘everyday casteism’ in the UK

The Dalit Solidarity Network-UK have launched an online survey asking UK residents to report incidents of ‘everyday casteism’ experienced in the UK. DSN-UK hopes to gather evidence, compile cases and give an overview of the types of caste discrimination that exist within the UK’s South Asian diaspora communities – and strengthen the call for implementation of the legislation in the UK to outlaw caste-based discrimination.
 
Take part in the survey here

The Dalit Solidarity Network Finland celebrates its 10th anniversary

The Dalit Solidarity Network – Finland (DSNFi) celebrated its tenth anniversary as an online event on 16 November 2020. The celebration brought together more than thirty participants from Nepal, India, UK and many parts of Finland, including Vice-President of the European Parliament, Heidi Hautala MEP, who gave a keynote address.
 
Read the IDSN article on the event

Dalit voices – a video series

The organisation Smashboard has launched the video series ‘Dalit Voices’ featuring interviews with Dalit women activists around the world, addressing what is urgently required in the work towards ending caste atrocities in India. The video series seeks to keep the discussion of caste-based gender violence alive in the wake of the Hathras gang rape and murder of September 2020. 
 
Watch the videos here

Angela Davis speaks up about #DalitLivesMatter

Video statement by Angela Davis
Veteran civil rights and #BlackLivesMatter campaigner Professor Angela Davis has given a video statement about the need for increased solidarity with the #DalitLivesMatter movement. “We stand with those who are issuing a global cry for an end to racism and who not only say black lives matter but also Dalit lives matter and Muslim lives matter,” Professor Davis stated.
See the full statement by Angela Davis

New Podcast Series: Caste in the USA

'Caste In The USA' is a podcast series examining the pervasiveness of caste discrimination among Indians in the US in a series of conversations across campuses, offices and households, to understand how caste discrimination pervades the community. The series is hosted by the Executive Director of Equality Labs Thenmozhi Soundararajan and published by media outlet Firstpost.
 
Listen to the podcast series

Journal: Legacy of Gender and Caste Discrimination

This is a special gender issue of ‘Caste: A Global Journal’ featuring articles by Dalit women authors on intersectional caste and gender discrimination in South Asia. The issue is open access and published by Brandeis University.
 
Read the journal

Coming up:

 

IDSN speaking at EU-NGO Human Rights Forum on 9-10 December

IDSN will participate in the EU-NGO Human Rights Forum on ‘The Impact of New Technologies on Human Rights’, highlighting the need for action on caste-hate speech in the digital sphere and offering key recommendations. Ritwajit Das, representing IDSN, will be speaking on a keynote panel on ‘Fundamental Rights and Freedoms in the Digital Sphere’ from 12:30-14:30 CET on 10 December.
 

Selected News Headlines:
 

India’s lower-caste Dalit women raped ‘to keep them in their place’: report (South China Morning Post)
“The rights groups said men from dominant castes frequently use sexual violence as a weapon to reinforce caste and gender hierarchies, which place India’s 200 million Dalits on the lowest rung of an ancient caste hierarchy.”
 
 Hathras Case: Angela Davis, Other Activists Express Solidarity, Demand Action (The Wire)
“…the rapes and murders of Dalit women in UP by dominant-caste men “have galvanized tens of thousands of protestors across the world to rise up against the police state that operates in the service of violent Hindutva in India”.
 
UP Dalit Girl Dies of Burn Injuries, Family Blames Kin of ‘Rapist’ (the Quint)
“Almost three months after she was allegedly raped on Independence Day, a 15-year-old Dalit girl from Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr died of burn injuries at a Delhi hospital on Tuesday, 17 November, allegedly after being set ablaze by relatives and acquaintances of the rape accused”
 
Indian factory workers supplying major brands allege routine exploitation (BBC)
“The women working at these garment factories all live in poverty in a rural area of South India. The charity Action Aid, which supports more than 1,200 female garment workers across 45 villages in this specific region, told the BBC that forced overtime, verbal abuse and poor working conditions were routine at the factories in question.”
 
30 years of SC/ST PoA Act: Lacks and loopholes (TwoCircles.net)
“It effectively places the burden of proving oppression solely on the oppressed person, instead of the “upper” caste perpetrators, who exist in society and thereby act, with the innate knowledge of their caste-power, and impunity given to the same.”
 
“I’m Going To Live A Leader’s Life And Die A Leader Too”: Manisha Mashaal (Feminism India)
“As marginalized women stand up today for their right to a life of equality, dignity, respect, and recognition, they also demand their right to dissent and right to say no. The answers to the systemic discrimination of Dalits lies in the questions that arise from the experiences of those who have suffered the atrocities.”
 
Child marriage and Child Labour: Slavery is Not Dead in Sugarcane (Counterview)
This article is an extension to the report 'Paradox of the Sweetest Crop', focusing on the facets of gender and caste as cross-cutting issues to be kept in mind while addressing the problem of child labour in the sugarcane supply chain and in other agricultural crops in India.
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About us

The International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN) works on a global level for the elimination of caste discrimination and similar forms of discrimination based on work and descent.
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