Caste Discrimination against India's âUntouchablesâ - Human Rights ...

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II. Authors of the Report Human Rights Watch and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University School of Law submit the following report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Committee or CERD) for consideration in its review of India’s fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth periodic reports under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Convention or ICERD). Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, New York University School of Law CHRGJ is directed by Professors Philip Alston, Smita Narula, and Margaret Satterthwaite. Jayne Huckerby is research director. CHRGJ aims to generate substantive, cutting-edge, and sophisticated contributions to human rights research and legal scholarship, and to actively engage in public affairs by making original and constructive contributions to ongoing policy debates relating to human rights. It achieves these aims by undertaking rigorous legal analysis and disseminating studies in five key research and project areas: Detainees and the “War on Terror,” Discrimination and National Security, Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Extrajudicial Executions, and Transitional Justice. In its work on Discrimination, the Center and the International Human Rights Clinic (a program of the Center) have focused on caste discrimination in South Asia, collaborating extensively with the International Dalit Solidarity Network, of which Professor Narula is a co-founder. Professor Narula is also former researcher for South Asia at Human Rights Watch where she investigated and authored a number of Human Rights Watch’s reports on caste discrimination and discrimination against religious minorities in India. Most recently, in August 2005, during the meeting of the United Nations (UN) Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the Center released a 65-page report entitled The Missing Piece of the Puzzle: Caste Discrimination and the Conflict in Nepal, and in November 2005, provided an oral statement to the UN Committee Against Torture urging the Committee to investigate torture against Dalits in its State Party examination of Nepal. All publications and statements of the Center can be found at its website: www.chrgj.org. 17
Human Rights Watch An independent, New York-based nongovernmental organization, Human Rights Watch conducts regular, systematic fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses in all regions of the world. Human Rights Watch examines human rights practices of state and non-state actors irrespective of their political affiliation, geopolitical alignments, ethnic or religious persuasions. It defends freedom of thought and expression, due process and equal protection of the law, and a vigorous civil society. Founded in 1978, Human Rights Watch today includes divisions that cover Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and Central Asia, and the Middle East in addition to its thematic divisions. It is supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. It accepts no government funds, directly or indirectly. Kenneth Roth is the executive director and Brad Adams heads the Asia Division. Human Rights Watch has worked on caste-based discrimination in South Asia for almost a decade, but particularly since the 1999 publication of its report Broken People: Caste Violence Against India’s “Untouchables.” Human Rights Watch is a founding member of the International Dalit Solidarity Network and collaborates extensively with a number of Dalit rights groups in South Asia. It has recently been advocating for the protection of Dalits who are particularly vulnerable in situations of internal conflict. An armed conflict involving Maoists in Nepal, and a similar uprising in several Indian states in India by Maoist groups known as Naxalites, has placed Dalits at high risk of abuse from security forces, vigilante groups often acting with the support of the government, and militants. It has also documented the particular vulnerability of Dalits among children employed in the worst forms of child labor and among those living with HIV/AIDS. Human Rights Watch investigated the failure of the state to protect Dalits from discrimination in receiving relief and rehabilitation after the 2006 tsunami; its recommendations were submitted to the Indian government as it prepared its disaster management policy. All reports, editorials, and statements of Human Rights Watch are available on www.hrw.org. 18
Page 1 and 2: Hidden Apartheid was produced as a
Page 3 and 4: VII. Article 4: Eradicate propagand
Page 5 and 6: I. Summary List of the Critical Iss
Page 7 and 8: Article 2 India’s failure to ensu
Page 9 and 10: The NHRC has recommended that the g
Page 11 and 12: propaganda of the Sangh Parivar, wh
Page 13 and 14: The right to freedom of opinion and
Page 15 and 16: impediment to Dalits’ freedom to
Page 17 and 18: to education noted in his report be
Page 19: Article 7 There is a severe lack of
Page 23 and 24: The Committee itself has recognized
Page 25 and 26: IV. Response to India’s denial of
Page 27 and 28: to suffer disproportionately from m
Page 29 and 30: V. Article 2: States Parties’ obl
Page 31 and 32: interrogation of Dalits. Jurists, h
Page 33 and 34: Section 107 in excess of the maximu
Page 35 and 36: Bihar and Tamil Nadu conducted by H
Page 37 and 38: Atrocities Act, 1989. 83 Similarly,
Page 39 and 40: 2. Refrain from supporting private
Page 41 and 42: 4. Encourage integrationist movemen
Page 43 and 44: that these groups were poorly repre
Page 45 and 46: 4. Inadequate development and prote
Page 47 and 48: implemented. 130 The societal perce
Page 49 and 50: caste residents. 140 This segregati
Page 51 and 52: Muslims and Christians in India, 14
Page 53 and 54: A. Duty to ensure the right to equa
Page 55 and 56: In fact, as statistics from the Nat
Page 57 and 58: Dalits’ right to equal treatment
Page 59 and 60: egistered in the state, with only 4
Page 61 and 62: Box 3: Offenses under the Preventio
Page 63 and 64: Box 4: Examples of retaliatory atta
Page 65 and 66: Vulnerability to sexual violence al
Page 67 and 68: C. Ensure Dalits’ political right
Page 69 and 70: een facing discrimination, intimida
Page 71 and 72:
Box 6: Instances of Forced Displace
Page 73 and 74:
caste system. Inter-marriages betwe
Page 75 and 76:
off by her parents without her cons
Page 77 and 78:
Denial of the right to own property
Page 79 and 80:
difficult if not impossible. Finall
Page 81 and 82:
6. Ensure Dalits’ right to freedo
Page 83 and 84:
The Ramabai Killings The Ramabai ki
Page 85 and 86:
1. Ensure Dalits’ rights to work,
Page 87 and 88:
castes, 326 with the result that mo
Page 89 and 90:
formulate and implement comprehensi
Page 91 and 92:
c. Forced Migratory Labor The susce
Page 93 and 94:
also fail to adequately address chi
Page 95 and 96:
3. Ensure Dalits’ right to housin
Page 97 and 98:
upper-caste women than the Dalit wo
Page 99 and 100:
Additionally, Dalit children are of
Page 101 and 102:
overwhelmingly landless and engaged
Page 103 and 104:
. Compulsory, exploitative, and deg
Page 105 and 106:
c. Segregation in schools Segregati
Page 107 and 108:
of sufficient water and adequate sa
Page 109 and 110:
(Indore district, Madhya Pradesh) t
Page 111 and 112:
ecause police will purposely downpl
Page 113 and 114:
exist. 483 School textbooks may sim
Page 115 and 116:
Acknowledgements Center for Human R
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