A/HRC/31/56 19. Over 500 delegates participated, including representatives of Member States, United Nations mechanisms, regional intergovernmental bodies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and minorities. They identified challenges involving minorities, as well as effective practices to combat discrimination against minorities during all stages of the criminal justice process. Recommendations from the Forum will be presented to the Council at its thirty-first session. III. Minorities and discrimination based on caste and analogous systems of inherited status A. Introduction 20. The Special Rapporteur is concerned by information she has received regarding incidents of discrimination in caste-based and analogous systems of inherited status, including atrocities committed against individuals ascribed to the lowest strata by virtue of their caste status. During the course of her work, she regularly addressed the continued plight of such people through press statements,5 consultations, side events and thematic reports to the Human Rights Council. 6 21. The Special Rapporteur recognizes the complexity of addressing this topic within the minority rights framework, as there exists the view that caste systems are a way to organize society without the domination of majority groups, and that therefore, “lower caste” groups may not strictly fall under the category of minority groups. However, she believes that, while many caste-affected groups may belong to the same larger ethnic, religious or linguistic community, they often share minority-like characteristics, particularly their non-dominant and often marginalized position, stigma, and the historic use of the minority rights framework to claim their rights. She further acknowledges that caste and caste-like systems are present in other groups, including some indigenous communities. Moreover, she highlights that minority groups who are characterized by their non-dominant position and whose members possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics differing from those of the rest of the population are also, in many cases, caste-affected groups, and therefore face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination on the grounds of both their minority status and descent. Consequently, she believes that a minority rights approach can provide a valuable platform for the protection of the rights of caste-affected communities and that minority rights standards, including equality, non-discrimination, consultation, participation and special measures, should be applied to combat discrimination based on caste and analogous systems. 22. The Special Rapporteur stresses that discrimination based on caste and analogous systems exists in many countries. While acknowledging important differences between affected communities in terms of the manifestation, severity and experience of caste-based discrimination, she firmly believes that there are common characteristics to caste and castelike systems that inherently contradict the principles of human dignity, equality and nondiscrimination, particularly differentiated social status, whereby individuals placed in the lowest positions are regarded as “inferior” and “non-human”. The resulting extreme exclusion and dehumanization of caste-affected groups translates into individuals and communities often being deprived of or severely restricted from enjoying their most basic civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. 5 6 www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13352. See, inter alia, A/69/266, A/HRC/25/56 and A/HRC/19/56. 5