Durban conference fails to soothe 'Dalits'; WCC regrets

The UN anti-racism conference has again ended on a sad note with no mention of 'Dalits' in the outcome document ratified by world representatives in Geneva.

Two major church organisations expressed regret that the conference "failed to acknowledge the suffering of the more than 200 million people discriminated against on the basis of work and descent".

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), said Dalits – formerly known as untouchables – are once again made invisible in this document.

During the recent Bangkok conference, the church bodies had expressed high expectations in the UN conference, which they said might put an end to the 3,500-year old caste oppression in India.

Representatives of church organizations around the world at the Bangkok event had expressed their solidarity with the Dalit struggle for justice and proposed various initiatives to implement awareness-raising programs and monitor and respond to caste atrocities.

Paul Divakar, the convenor of the Delhi-based National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights laments there was "not a single word in the declaration even although this is an abominable practice that affects 260 million people."

Divakar told ENI that in India, a country that prides itself as being the world's biggest democracy, more than 167 million people, or more than 10 percent of the population, are from the Dalit communities and suffer from caste discrimination.

The WCC and LWF although regretted the shunning of Dalits in the final declaration, was pleased that the conference was able to reaffirm the international community's common commitment to preventing, combating and eradicating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in all parts of the world.

"We are grateful that the concept of 'defamation of religions' does not inappropriately intrude into the human rights framework of this document, which instead properly addresses itself to the stigmatization of persons based on their religion or belief," they added.

They also welcomed the proposal of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Pillay Navy, who suggested creating an "observatory on discrimination". This, they said, may help throw further light on the situation of the millions of victims of untouchability practices

The controversial Durban conference that began on April 20 and concludes today, April 24, went through a shaky start as several western countries boycotted the gathering over remarks on Israel and the Holocaust.