News and Events | Dalit Solidarity Network

Media debate on caste legislation in the UK

12th October 2016

This week DSN-UK Director Meena Varma was featured on the BBC Asian Network Lunchtime programme. Meena emphasised the need for caste legislation and expressed her concerns about the upcoming consultation. Yet, those opposing the legislation stated that “caste system” does not exist. To listen to the programme please click here (minute 5:25- 9:00, broadcasted on 10/10/2016).

How connected are slavery, bonded labour and caste-based discrimination issues?

6th October 2016

On 15 September 2016 the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Urmila Bhoola, presented her annual report to the Human Rights Council. This year her report focused on global trends of debt bondage, reflecting the information received from a range of stakeholders who completed the SR’s questionnaire on bonded labour. The report outlined that ‘debt bondage, also known as bonded labour, is one of the four practices similar to slavery’ and are closely related to different forms of exploitation, including forced labour, trafficking and child labour. The SR noted that a global trend of debt bondage ‘can be seen [..]

UK Government challenged on its non-implementation of law to outlaw caste discrimination

21st September 2016

Dalit Solidarity Network UK challenges UK government on the non-implementation of promised legislation to outlaw caste discrimination. In July 2016, Dalit Solidarity Network UK instructed well known solicitors Mishcon de Reya to write a pre-action letter to the Minister for Equalities and Women and the Secretary of State for Education, Justine Greening. This was a significant milestone for Dalit Solidarity Network UK leading a consortium of organisations, including Anti Caste Discriminations Alliance, CasteWatch UK and the National Secular Society who seek to challenge the UK government over the non-implementation of the promised legislation to outlaw caste discrimination in the UK. [..]

United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reviews the United Kingdom

12th August 2016

Disappointment again as the UK Government fails to advance the implementation of the caste discrimination legislation – despite the duty placed in it to do so by Parliament 4 and 5 August 2016, Palais de Wilson, United Nations, Geneva Every two years all state parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) are required to submit reports on the implementation of the treaty. In March 2015 the United Kingdom (UK) submitted three combined reports and was reviewed by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on 4th and 5th of August 2016. Before the [..]

Parliament debates failure of the UK Government to implement anti-caste based discrimination legislation

20th July 2016

Following an event held at the House of Lords by the APPG for Dalits and the APPG for Human Rights called “Dalit rights are Human Rights” in May 2016, Lord Harries called for a debate on 11 July 2016 in the House of Lords asking Her Majesty’s Government on the planed steps to implement anti-caste based discrimination legislation. Lord Harries started the debate by clarifying that: ‘First, what we are concerned about is discrimination in the public sphere. The law is concerned with what happens in public. It exists to ensure that there is no discrimination in the areas of [..]