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THE CASTE ISSUE
NGOs from Nepal, Japan, Senegal or India addressed CERD
on the caste issue at the UN in
Geneva
International Movement Against All Forms of
Discrimination and Racism
Ms Brimbelle Grandcolas (Intern, IMADR Geneva office), Geneva, the 9th of
August.
Friday the 9th of August, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination concluded its
discussion on discrimination based on descent with a number of Committee Experts
expressing the need to urge States parties to implement positive measures
against such discrimination. The Committee is expected to adopt recommendations on discrimination based on
descent on the
basis of the discussions held on the 8th and 9th of August before concluding its three-week session on 23
August.
Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
stipulates that the term "racial discrimination" should mean any distinction, exclusion,
restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or
ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or
exercise, on equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political,
economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.
An appropriate definition of the word "descent"
On Thursday the 8th of August the Committee heard presentations from representatives of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs).
The first speech was a joint statement on behalf of IMADR, WCC, MRG, and 26 other organizations. According
to this statement, we should focus on the definition of racial discrimination and descent but also look at eliminating
it. The different countries such as Japan, Nepal, Senegal, India, Burkina Faso, and
Pakistan are highly diverse in geography and history but share key elements on
the descent issue.
Those common points are for example the concept of purity, the restrictions on intermarriage or the
inherited manual role. Professor Murakami from the University of Osaka and
part of the IMADR Japan Committee also studied the precise meaning of the
term "descent". He said that there were three possible interpretations of the word "descent". The first
interpretation was that the word had the same meaning as the other four grounds for
racial discrimination, thus denying a distinct meaning of the term. A
broad interpretation was a sound one, which would allow the word descent to play an appropriate role. However,
that interpretation amounted to ignoring the interpretation of CERD. In
view of the importance of the interpretation of the Committee, it was
appropriate to adopt the interpretations of the Committee insofar as they were reasonable.
Shigeyuki Kumisaka, of the Buraku Liberation League, explained the background of the discrimination against
Buraku people in Japan. The rigid discriminatory policies, which divided
and ruled the population under this caste system, emerged with feudal
Japan in the early Edo period. Mr Bhagwan Das, president of Dalit Solidarity Peoples insisted on the
notion of visibility: "caste is not visible but race is visible, race is a product of
geography whereas caste is a product of religion." He explained that even though
India has the best laws for affirmative action it is not effective; the problem lies elsewhere in the
elements of the religion.
Yogesh Varhade the President of Ambedkar Center for Justice and Peace stressed the importance of the Hindu
religion that says that people are not all born equal. He gave examples of
the injustice towards Dalits in India such as gang rape, murder, torture,
looting or even violent acts in which Dalits where forced to eat animal excrement. Paul Divakar from the
National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights who was the moderator for a press
conference on the theme of "global caste discrimination" held at the UN on
Thursday, focused on the fact that it was India that insisted on the inclusion in article 1 of CERD of
descent in order to cover caste. Without this inclusion, victims of the most widely
practiced discrimination would not have had a forum internationally. He then
asked CERD to name this problem as a primary form of based discrimination and firmly bring it under CERD.
Affirmative action : a good solution?
A representative of the South Asia Human Rights Documentations Centre (SAHRDC), asked the Committee to
correct the narrow focus of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action
to address discrimination based on descent. The final document addressed discrimination against people of African and
Asian descent, but failed to refer to caste discrimination as a form of
discrimination based on descent. D.B. Sagar Bishwakarma, President of the Nepalese Dalit NGO
Federation, thought that despite the fact that descent-based discrimination was
unconstitutional in Nepal and that Nepal had ratified many international
conventions pertaining to anti-discrimination, descent-based discrimination was a day-to-day reality
in the country.
Commitment from the State was not strong and as result, the enforcement part was very weak. P.P. Sivapragasam,
of the Human Development Organization, said that Sri Lanka was one
of the few countries in the world that adopted discrimination on the
grounds of citizenship for the Indian Tamils only. The other ethnic groups automatically became citizens by
birth or through living in the country. The Indian Tamils were made stateless
by default and had to prove that their fathers were born in Sri Lanka. Even
though Sri Lanka and India had reached many agreements to solve the problem of the stateless Tamils, the
discrimination still goes on.
Dalit women faced double discrimination
According to Burnad Fathima Natesan, of the Tamil Nadu Women's Movement, a Dalit women explained to us how
once, high caste women hadn't used a toilet but an iron pot overnight and how they offered the excrement in the pot
to two dalit men forcing them to eat it. When they refused they were branded
with a red-hot iron rod. Ruth Manorama, of the National Federation of Dalit
Women condemned the absence of legal protection for Dalits. She called the international community to take
affirmative actions towards the Dalits. Hajamma Sandanakoti, of Vivastha
Vethireka Sanghatan, said she was born into the Madiga community, one of
the scheduled caste communities in India.
The marriage of a Jogini woman was a formality. It did not matter whom she was married to. It was a passage
for her to be used by anyone for sexual enjoyment. Many Jogini women were
forced into prostitution. Jaya Lakkinenni, of the Vedika, said that Dalit
women living in southern India were subjected to discrimination by the dominant higher castes. She
thinks that if Dalits were economically better off, their rights might have been
respected. Durga Sob, of the National Dalit Commission
(Nepal) described the double discrimination against Dalit Women from gender
and caste discrimination.
They are physically abused and economically exploited by the high caste men. According to P.L. Mimroth, of
the Society of Development People for Social Justice, the incidents of
atrocities and caste-based discrimination on Dalits are increasing day by
day in Rajasthan despite the constitutional provisions. Prasad Sirivella, of the Dalit Human Rights Watch
confirmed that the caste system and the practice of untouchabililty are still
perpetuated in the Indian society. The economic system
of India allowed the members of the lower castes to be excluded and
marginalized. Discriminatory practices continued despite the economic
development of the nation.
The caste system also exists in Africa
This discussion gave the opportunity to the experts to see that the caste issue has also existed in Africa for
a long time from different African speakers. First Kalidou Sy, of RADDHO
(Senegal), said that the caste system is a social construction and not only
due to the division of labour. Thus all discriminated people are close-minded. They close themselves
sociologically. They are brainwashed with the speech of the society about their
lower status. They have their life dictated by the "higher community".
Professor Asha A. Samad, of SAFRAD-Somalia Association, thinks that caste has been an integral part of Somali
society for centuries. She described that caste stratification is a
daily component of Somali society, in the smallest nomad villages, in towns,
in cities, in refugee camps, as well as in the overseas Somali communities.
To be a Midgan-Madibhan or an outcaste person in Somali society means to suffer life-long indignities, to be
deemed impure, unlucky, sinful, polluting, and thus meriting the disdain, avoidance, and abuse of others. Victor Dike
(Nigeria) said that in his country, particularly in the Igboland, whose population
was about 27 million; people were divided into slaves and non-slaves -- the
freeborn. Any person from the freeborn could not touch those members of the slaves for fear of being
contaminated. Those who were born under the caste system remained in the caste
system.
The Government doesn't want to talk about it because the society considers it part of their culture to
discriminate against those people. Ilgilas Weila, of the Timidria (Niger), said
that in Niger there were only 10 ethnic groups with each practising a caste
system within its own group. Among the ten ethnic
groups that made up Niger's Republic, four of them practised caste systems in
accordance with the occupation they practised traditionally. Inter-communal marriage was influenced
by the caste system.
An inter-communal marriage could be disastrous in a small village and the barrier of the caste system could
not be broken. A member of a caste could only marry from his own caste
and not from another caste. Adam Hussein Adam, of the Centre for Minority
Rights Development, said that there was a caste system within the Indian community in Kenya. There were four
distinctive forms of castes being practised among themselves, in spite of
their small number in the country. Those belonging to lower castes within the
Indian community were subjected to oppression.
All the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) addressed the descent matter, contending, among other things,
that more efforts were needed to teach tolerance and harmony; that
greater steps were needed to protect religious minorities; and that approaches
to combating violence against women should include attention to the special problems suffered by women of
lower-caste groups.
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