Norton Introduces Resolution Calling on Congress to Condemn Discrimination Against Dalit People; Will Be Honored at 1st Global Conference on Defending Dalit Rights, Thursday

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a resolution condemning Dalit untouchability, the practice of birth-descent discrimination against Dalit people, which is still widely practiced in India, Nepal, the Asian diaspora, and other South Asian nations, and calling on these countries to recognize the human rights of the Dalit people and end all forms of untouchability within their borders. Discrimination against Dalits has existed for more than 2,000 years and has included educational discrimination, economic disenfranchisement, discrimination in medical care, and increased vulnerability to poverty, hunger, violence, rape, and humiliation. Although untouchability and its practice in any form was abolished in India's Constitution in 1950, discrimination against Dalits persists today.

On Thursday, March 19, Norton will be honored for her commitment to Dalit human rights at the 1st Global Conference on Defending Dalit Rights, hosted by the International Commission for Dalit Rights and the Global Conference Organizing Committee, at 4:00 p.m., at Trinity Washington University (125 Michigan Avenue, NE).

"Untouchability is uniquely inhumane, but the history of nascent discrimination in our own country gives the United States a special role in helping the world end Dalit untouchability," Norton said. "Because the practice of Dalit untouchability has no place in our modern world or modern India, my resolution calls on Congress to speak out for those who have been silenced and oppressed for millennia. Astonishingly, Dalits comprise nearly 25% of India's population. If India wants to continue to progress as a modern democratic state, it must end all forms of this heinous modern day slavery."

Below is the text of the resolution:

HOUSE RESOLUTION

Condemning Dalit untouchability, the practice of birth-descent discrimination against Dalit people, which is widely practiced in India, Nepal, the Asian diaspora and other South Asian nations, and calling on these countries to recognize the human rights of the Dalit people and end all forms of untouchability within their borders.

Whereas untouchability, recognized as discrimination and social stratification based on a combination of heredity and work, is a form of discrimination and exclusion against Dalit people founded on ill-conceived notions of Dalit impurity, Dalit pollution, and Dalit inequality;

Whereas Dalit untouchability continues to be widespread and persistent in India, Nepal, and throughout South Asia and in the Asian diaspora in nations such as Nigeria, Senegal, Mauritania, Yemen and Japan, affecting an estimated 260 million people worldwide, with the highest number of victims found in South Asia;

Whereas discrimination against the Dalits, or "untouchables," has existed for more than 2,000 years in India alone and has included educational discrimination, economic disenfranchisement, discrimination in medical care, and increased vulnerability to poverty, hunger, violence, rape, and humiliation;

Whereas the status of untouchability significantly increases a Dalit's vulnerability to debt bondage, forced labor, child labor, domestic servitude, commercial sexual exploitation and all forms of human trafficking and modern-day labor enslavements;

Whereas according to Human Rights Watch and India's official National Family Health Survey, Dalits are among the poorest of the poor, living on less than $1.25 per day; most of India's bonded laborers are Dalits; and half of India's Dalit children are undernourished, 21 percent are severely underweight, and 12 percent die before their 5th birthday;

Whereas in India alone a crime is committed against a Dalit every 18 minutes;

Whereas untouchability and birth-descent discrimination in all its forms are prohibited by international human rights law as proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Labor Organization Convention No. 111;

Whereas Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, born on April 14, 1891, was a freedom fighter and advocate for ending the practice of untouchability;

Whereas Dr. Ambedkar was the father and architect of the Constitution of India 1949 and Article 17 abolishes untouchability and its practice in any form;

Whereas under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to which Nepal has been a State party since 1971, the Government is obligated to prohibit discrimination based on descent, which includes untouchability, as a form of "racial discrimination";

Whereas in March 2010, The House of Lords in the United Kingdom passed the Equality Bill empowering the government to treat birth descent discrimination as ‘an aspect of race';

Whereas the European Union Parliament Resolution on Caste-based Discrimination of 2013 condemns the practice of untouchability and the continuing human rights violations committed against people suffering from social hierarchies and birth-based discrimination;

Whereas at the Dalit-Minority International Conference on December 27, 2006, Prime Minister Singh of India became the first leader of his nation to compare the condition of Dalits with that of black South Africans under apartheid, stating, "Even after 60 years of constitutional and legal protection and support, there is still social discrimination against Dalits in many parts of our country…. Dalits have faced a unique discrimination in our society that is fundamentally different from the problems of minority groups in general. The only parallel to the practice of untouchability was apartheid in South Africa";

Whereas Human Rights Watch and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at the New York University School of Law released a report in February 2007 describes the discrimination against Dalits or "untouchables" as a hidden Apartheid;

Whereas despite the numerous laws enacted for the protection and betterment of the Dalits, Dalits are still considered outcasts in South Asian society and in the Asian diaspora and are treated as such;

Whereas the National Commission on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in India has declared that many of the reported cases of atrocities against Dalits end in acquittals;

Resolved that the House of Representatives –

1. condemns the practice of untouchability and the discriminatory treatment of the Dalits in South Asia and the Asian diaspora;

2. calls on the Governments of India, Nepal, and other South Asian nations and the Asian diaspora to end all forms of untouchability and discrimination of the Dalit people, and to ensure respect for internationally recognized human rights for these minority groups within their nations; and

3. demands that the international community put pressure on the governments of nations that still practice Dalit untouchability to take every necessary measure to end this horrific practice and to protect the fundamental rights of all Dalits within their borders.