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In an overwhelming display of support,
international human rights leaders and governments attending the
World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) have publicly declared
their support for the inclusion of discrimination affecting
Dalits.
The United Nations Secretary General Kofi
Annan and the High Comissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson
were among the first to assert the right of the Dalit community
to demand that the discrimination they face on the basis of work
and descent be addressed at the WCAR during the NGO Forum held at
the Kingsmead Cricket Stadium in Durban, South Africa.
The human rights leaders were quickly
joined by government representatives from Netherlands, Cuba,
Canada, Brazil, Namibia, the Holy See, Latvia, Chile, Argentina,
Norway and Syria. Even the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign
Affairs of Japan and the Ambassador for Nepal have declared in
the plenary that caste discrimination on the basis of work and
descent remains a serious problem in their countries.
Amidst this explosion of support for
those suffering caste-based discrimination, the Indian government
became increasingly isolated in its hard-line stance against the
inclusion of this form of discrimination. Only the People's
Republic of China were prepared to declare that this form of
discrimination should not be discussed at the WCAR.
India's stance now conflicts even with
its own National Human Rights Commission, who have issued a
statement at the WCAR arguing that "this Conference provides
a singular opportunity to the international community to deal
openly and courageously with the vexed issues of discrimination
and inequality as they exist all over the world, in all of their
variety, including the forms of discrimination that persist in
India."
They continued, "the Commission has
thus accorded the highest priority to ending discrimination
against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and in seeking to
eradicate, in particular, two pernicious practices which largely
affect members of these communities: these relate to manual
scavenging and bonded labour."
The chair of the working group on the
draft Programme of Action has decided to put Paragraph 73 in
brackets, despite a point-of-order protest on this ruling. The
chair also decided to leave India in charge of negotiations on
the paragraph. India has a monopoly on the discussion and
consequences of the paragraph, given by the chair. This goes
against common procedure that an interested party should not be
in charge of consultations on the paragraph.
The countries that have spoken in favour
of the paragraph are not willing to negotiate on a paragraph that
has already been reduced to the bare minimum – four lines as
an action plan for an extreme form of discrimination affecting
250 million people!
The countries that have spoken up have
been pressured into a conspiracy of silence, such that they are
not prepared to take a lead on calling for transparent processes
on this paragraph. Inducements may have included a trade-off on
the 'reparation' issue for the developed nations. The government
of India appears to be appeasing both sides of the vexed
Palestine/Zionism issue. Few smaller nations are willing to stand
up to the diplomatic might of India, and can no doubt be bought
off quite easily. But the withdrawal of Swiss support raised many
eyebrows and got a lot of people wondering what kind of deal the
BJP government had arranged – especially in the light of the
'tehelka.com' corruption exposé.
The Draft Declaration working group has
been requested to include caste discrimination and discrimination
on the basis of descent and work, but the working group has
decided to make a generic list. This means that Paragraph 73 is
the only paragraph remaining that mentions discrimination on the
basis of work and descent, ie. Caste discrimination.
| Original Para 73. Urges
States to ensure that all necessary constitutional,
legislative and administrative measures, including
appropriate forms of affirmative action, are in place to
prohibit and redress discrimination on the basis of work
and descent, and that such measures are respected and
implemented by all State authorities at all levels; |
Posted on 2001-09-20
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