A/HRC/31/56 (town assembly) have been forced to stay at home and be represented by their husbands at meetings. Those who have attempted to speak in the panchayat have been subjected to backlash, and even violence, against members of their caste.103 102. Outside South Asia, information on caste-affected women and girls is scarce. In Japan, a survey by the Buraku Liberation League revealed that Buraku women experienced discrimination in a wide range of areas, including marriage, employment and health care, and approximately 30 per cent had suffered from sexual violence.104 In Mauritania, Haratine women are reported to be at greater risk of violence, in both the public and private spheres, and to suffer from high levels of sexual violence, including rape and marital rape, domestic violence and sexual assault.105 103. Human rights violations against women and girls because of their caste status also include extremely disadvantaged social and economic conditions that have a direct impact on the enjoyment of their economic, social and cultural rights. Women and girls from lower castes have lower literacy levels and are more likely to be prevented from pursuing education. Many perform dangerous and unprotected work, including manual scavenging, and receive lower salaries. Many also have no or limited access to public services, including health care, as well as to government schemes and entitlements, and are de facto prohibited from owning land.106 VI. Initiatives and good practices to address caste-based discrimination A. United Nations system 104. The issue of discrimination based on descent and, in particular, caste-based discrimination, has been gaining momentum in the United Nations system for the past two decades. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has been instrumental, as it first addressed discrimination based on caste and on similar forms of social hierarchy as a form of discrimination based on descent, as provided in article 1 (1) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and has also addressed the issue in its reviews of affected States. The adoption of general recommendation No. 29 (2002) consolidated the Committee’s interpretation of article 1 (1) and formulated a global definition of caste-based discrimination: “discrimination based on caste and analogous systems of inherited status”. 105. The work of the former Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights has been of vital importance in the process of giving visibility to the issue of caste-based discrimination. Following its resolution 2000/4, declaring that discrimination based on work and descent was a form of discrimination prohibited by international human 103 104 105 106 20 Navsarjan Trust and others, “The situation of Dalit rural women”, submission to the general discussion on rural women of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (2013), p. 3. Buraku Liberation League Central Women’s Division, “What the survey findings tell us: Buraku Women” in Minority Women Rise Up: A Collaborative Survey on Ainu, Buraku and Korean Women in Japan (International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism, 2004), sect. 1.2. Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization and Initiative pour la résurgence du mouvement abolitionniste Mauritanie, submission for the second periodic review of Mauritania (2015), p. 6. Navsarjan Trust and others, alternative report to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women for its examination of the fourth and fifth periodic reports of India (2014).