Joint statement by the Lutheran World Federation and MRG

3 September 2003

Discrimination based on work and descent

Item 5 of the agenda

Thank you, Madame Chairperson.

I speak on behalf of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Minority Rights Group International (MRG).

The co-sponsors of this statement welcome the expanded working paper on discrimination based on work and descent submitted by Mr Asbjørn Eide and Mr Yozo Yokota (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/24), pursuant to Sub-Commission decision 2002/108. The working paper has identified communities affected by discrimination based on work and descent outside of Asia, which was the region focussed on in the first working paper submitted by Mr Goonesekere to the Sub-Commission two years ago. Those communities, most of which are located in the African region, exhibit strikingly similar or even almost identical features to those identified in the first working paper. As the authors suggest, the expanded working paper may have fallen short of providing a comprehensive review of the global situation. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the expanded working paper has demonstrated that discrimination based on work and descent is a global issue, with manifestations in various parts of the world, and not limited to any particular country or region, and therefore, deserves the due attention and action by the United Nations.

Indeed, the issue of discrimination based on work and descent has been attracting an increasing level of attention by the international community, including various United Nations bodies and specialised agencies. Here are some examples:

(As has been reported by the Chairperson/representative of the Committee,) During its sixty-first session in August 2002 the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) held a historic thematic discussion on discrimination based on descent. CERD heard testimonies and received relevant information and proposals from twenty-three individuals representing the situations of Dalits of South Asia, Burakumin of Japan, Osu of Nigeria, and casted or caste-like communities in Senegal, Niger, Somalia and Kenya. States parties concerned were also invited to present information on the nature and problems of the communities concerned and the measures taken in response, and to present their view on the thematic discussion. Four members of the Sub-Commission also contributed to the thematic discussion. The Committee subsequently adopted General Recommendation XXIX on 'descent-based discrimination' on 22 August 2002. In this General Recommendation, the Committee made it clear that 'descent-based discrimination' includes discrimination based on 'forms of social stratification such as caste and analogous systems of inherited status', and condemned such discrimination as a violation of human rights law.

The Sub-Commission's Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery addressed at its latest twenty-eighth session, held in June 2003, the issue of descent-based discrimination, within the framework of its main theme of this year's session, namely, the question of contemporary forms of slavery related to and generated by discrimination. In its recommendations, the Working Group 'recognised that victims of slavery and slavery-like practices frequently belong to minority groups, in particular racial groups or categories of people who are especially vulnerable to a wide range of discriminatory acts, including people of descent-based groups', and 'urged Governments to fully implement the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination's General Recommendation on Descent-Based Discrimination, including: reviewing, enacting or amending legislation to outlaw all forms of discrimination based on descent; resolutely implementing legislation and other measures in force; and formulating and implementing a comprehensive national strategy, with participation of members of affected groups, in order to eliminate discrimination against members of descent based groups'.

In June 2003, the International Labour Organization (ILO) submitted its first global report on discrimination, under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, to the ninety-first session of the International Labour Conference. The report, which is entitled, 'Time for Equality at Work', addresses the situation of discrimination based on descent and work, in particular discrimination against Dalits.1

For example, in paragraph 85, the report states, 'In Nepal, the Dalits ... are over-represented among the country's poor. As many as 80 per cent of them live below the poverty line and their share in total cultivable land is only one per cent. Unequal distribution of resources along caste lines, restrictions on free choice of occupation and exploitative relations of production are at the heart of this situation of deprivation.'

Consultations on UNESCO's new integrated strategy to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance were concluded with the international experts meeting organised by UNESCO in Osaka in June 2003. At the regional consultation for Africa held in Dakar from 13 to 15 February 2003, the participants underlined, as one of the three matters of particular concern in the region, the fight against prejudice, the acts and effects of racism and discrimination inherited from the past, including the phenomenon of castes. It was specifically acknowledged that caste-based discrimination exists in certain societies in Africa, as well as in Asia.

Madame Chairperson,

These recent developments in addressing various manifestations of discrimination based on work and descent within the United Nations system underline and provide additional support for the important role that the Sub-Commission can and should play in further examining this type of discrimination and elaborating recommendations for measures to be taken towards its total elimination. The expanded working paper has identified the areas in which more work needs to be done by the Sub-Commission in this respect.

Therefore, we welcome and endorse the conclusions and recommendations contained in the expanded working paper. In particular, we consider it not only desirable but also essential for the Sub-Commission to mandate a third working paper, as recommended by the authors, so as to fulfil the mandate given in the resolution 2000/4. A third working paper should focus on an examination of legal, judicial, administrative, and educational measures taken by governments concerned, as well as identifying additional communities affected by discrimination based on work and descent, including Diaspora communities. We also support the elaboration of some sort of guidelines which could provide guidance to all relevant actors, not only national or federal governments but also local governments as well as private sectors such as corporations, schools, religious institutions and other public places where discrimination often occurs. Such an instrument may take the form of a Declaration, or 'principles and guidelines' which the Sub-Commission can promulgate. In doing so, the Sub-Commission should avail itself of existing expertise, and seek for cooperation and collaboration from, inter alia, CERD, ILO and UNESCO. It should in particular take full account of the contents of CERD's General Recommendation XXIX.

The Sub-Commission has taken a leading, but no longer singular, role in ensuring that the long silence about this issue in international human rights forums has now been broken. The Sub-Commission has, however, a special capacity to propose and articulate instruments of general application for the guidance of States and for the protection of victims of violations. We call upon you to exercise that capacity.

Thank you, Madame Chairperson.

1 For example, under the heading of 'social regulation' (paragraph 72). Box 2.1 provides information about the 'affirmative action' taken by India for Dalits etc.