Human Rights and Democracy - Official Documents

Dalits still continue to face discrimination in their everyday lives, particularly in rural
areas of India where the caste system still prevails.
We welcome the ongoing measures that the Indian government has taken to
address discrimination, and will continue to discuss these issues with the relevant
Indian authorities. We have also supported the Indian government’s efforts to help
ensure equal treatment and access to services for the most disadvantaged
communities in India, including Dalits, through a number of projects. The Indian
government will carry out a caste-based census in 2011 which will help it to target
assistance and employment opportunities more accurately at disadvantaged groups.
In Nepal, our Embassy provided support for a consultation exercise which brought
together 235 grassroots NGOs, including organisations representing Dalit rights, to
assist in the preparation of a shadow report for Nepal’s Universal Periodic Review at
the UN’s Human Rights Council. The Embassy also funded a Dalit representative to
attend the review session to gain first-hand exposure to UN mechanisms.
Racism
Much of the Government’s international work to tackle racism in 2010 has been at
the global and regional levels and has focused on building support to address all
forms of racial intolerance. Through the EU we pursued a policy of fighting all
manifestations of racism and xenophobia both within the Union and in the EU’s
external actions. With EU partners we used political dialogues with third countries to
raise our concerns. These issues were also integrated into the EU’s cooperation
strategies. For example, under European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plans,
partner countries commit themselves to cooperate to combat all forms of
discrimination, religious intolerance and racism. Under its European Instrument for
Democracy and Human Rights, the EU supports the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights and its programme to support the implementation
of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, the outcome of the World
Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobic and Related
Intolerance, held in South Africa in 2001. Under the same financial instrument, the
EU gives support to various NGOs in their work on racism, xenophobia and nondiscrimination.
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