3. Reform: Filling the gaps in the implementation of the Declaration
35 .Rural Development Centre (RDC)
Thank you Mr.Chair,
My name is Pritika, from the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights on behalf of
Rural Development Center India.
Communities Discrimination on Work and Descent, which includes the Dalit
community where I am from, experience discriminatory practices which are not
limited to racism or our physical appearance. Perceived social hierarchies paired
with the notion of “purity and pollution”, varying degrees of dictated endogamy and
forced physical segregation create a complex cultural web of unwritten
practices. The Haratins in Africa, the Roma people scattered across the globe, the
Burakumin in Japan, and the Quilombolas in Brazil are a selection of various
groups who experience oppression through discrimination on work and descent.
In addition, sexual violence, gender-based violence, and the enslavement of
women and girls and control of their reproductive rights is a common enforcement
mechanism of the imposed “social order” those communities face
Within this context I wish to share my recommendations:
Beyond establishing protection mechanism for one specific group and call
them by their names, the recognition for the work and descent based and
hierarchical oppression must be recognized together with all the
communities which it affects.
To establish a working group to examine the gaps in protection for
Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent.
My second recommendation is to establish a UN International year
on the Rights of Communities Discriminated on Work and
Descent to allow focused and sustained attention on the topic.
I also appeal to member states to support us to pass create a
resolution recognising the unique discriminatory practices affecting all
Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent.
Thank you.