| DALIT SOLIDARITY FORUM - U.S. 250 Million Silenced
by Indian Government in UN Discrimination Conference: New
Yorkers join thousands worldwide in global protest
Press Conference following
protest in front of Indian Consulate at 11:30 a.m.,
Tuesday July 3, 64th St., between Madison and 5th Ave.
"The
situation of Dalits, or the so-called untouchables of
Asia, stands alone as the only issue to have been
systematically cut out of the conference's
intergovernmental process so far."
Smita Narula, HRW
July 3, 2001 (New York):
New Yorkers join thousands world-wide today in a Global
Day of Action to protest attempts by the Indian
government to sabotage discussion of caste discrimination
at a major UN meeting later this summer. The protest,
organized in New York by the Dalit Solidarity Forum/U.S.,
calls for an end to caste-based discrimination an
insidious form of racial discrimination affecting 250
million or 1 in 25 people globally. Protesters decried
attempts by the Indian government to undermine the
efforts of Indian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to
raise awareness of the caste struggle at preparatory
meetings in the lead-up to the U.N. World Conference
Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
Related Intolerance (WCAR), to be held in August in South
Africa. The situation of Dalits, or the so-called
untouchables of Asia, stands alone as the only issue to
have been systematically cut out of the conference's
intergovernmental process so far.
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