Durban Conference 2001 Elevated Caste Discrimination to a Global Human-Rights Issue

In 2001 the third UN Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance convened in Durban, South Africa. About 7,000 participants representing governments and civil-society groups from 170 countries gathered for the meeting. The delegates adopted the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, documents that have become central to worldwide anti-racism work. The United States and Israel withdrew from the conference, and several Asian governments opposed the explicit inclusion of caste, arguing that such language would single out their nations.

Amnesty International

Paul Divakar Namala, Executive Director of The Inclusivity Project and Convenor of the Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD), recounts that his family endured repeated caste-based attacks, including a petrol-bomb that killed his mother when he was 21. In 1998 he co-founded the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights to document and publicise caste discrimination both nationally and internationally. Participation in a preparatory meeting in Bellagio, supported by Pierre Sané—then Secretary General of Amnesty International—helped place caste on the Durban agenda.

Amnesty International

Namala states that the Durban conference gave unprecedented international visibility to caste discrimination, moving Dalit rights from the margins toward the centre of the human-rights debate. Large numbers of Dalit activists attended, presenting documentation, testimonies, drums and protest signs that highlighted the global relevance of caste-linked exclusion. The experience also forged links with Roma movements in Europe, Burakumin in Japan, Haratine and other groups affected by historic slavery in the Sahel, Osu communities in Nigeria, and Quilombola groups in Latin America, underscoring shared structures of inherited stigma, restricted work and segregation.

Amnesty International

Namala urges Amnesty International to adopt a clear global approach to discrimination based on work and descent, integrating CDWD concerns across its programmes on racial justice, gender equality, labour rights, corporate accountability, climate justice and access to justice. He calls for stronger international mechanisms, including comprehensive guidance under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and, ultimately, a Declaration on the Rights of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent. He emphasizes that the true test of these declarations will be whether they improve the daily lives of women confronting untouchability, sanitation workers seeking safe employment, Roma children facing school segregation, and Haratine families pursuing land and equality.

Amnesty International