UN Sub-Commission Adopted a Resolution on Descent-based Discrimination.

 The United Nations Sub-Commission on Human Rights adopted, in its 52nd session (July 31-August 18), a resolution titled "Discrimination based on work and descent." In the resolution, it called upon the Sub-Commission member Mr. Goonesekere (Sri Lanka) to prepare a working paper on the subject.

The resolution acknowledges that discrimination based on work and descent exists in various parts of the world, the governments concerned should take measures to prohibit and redress such discrimination and ensure that penalties and sanctions are prescribed for and applied to those who engage in such discrimination. Finally, the Sub-Commission decided to continue the consideration of the question at its next session.

The resolution enables the study of not only discrimination experienced by Dalits in India and people subject to caste-based discrimination in other countries of South Asia but also the situation faced by Buraku people in Japan and similar types of discrimination found in some African countries.

This unexpected result is a product of coordinated lobbying and advocacy by national and international organizations which International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) and the Buraku Liberation League (BLL) are part of. Mr. Masato Takahashi, Secretary-General of BLL, was in Geneva in August to attend a briefing on descent-based discrimination organized by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights of India and supported by the International Dalit Solidarity Network which IMADR took part of. The briefing was organized to inform the members of the Sub-Commission and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of the discrimination they experience.

The Sub-Commission resolution is a big step towards ensuring that descent-based discrimination will be put on the agenda of the World Conference Against Racism in 2001.

The following is the text of the resolution.

Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, 52nd session, 2000

Resolution 2000/4

Adopted on August 11, 2000

Discrimination based on work and descent

The Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights,

Affirming that, as declared in article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status,

Aware that discrimination based on work and descent has historically been a feature of societies in different regions of the world, and has affected a significant proportion overall of the world’s population,

Acknowledging the constitutional, legislative and administrative measures taken by relevant Governments to abolish practices of discrimination based on work and descent,

Concerned, however, at the persistence of discrimination based on work and descent in such societies,

  1. Declares that discrimination based on work and descent is a form of discrimination prohibited by international human rights law;

  2. Requests Governments to ensure that all necessary constitutional, legislative and administrative measures (including appropriate forms of affirmative action) are in place to prohibit and redress discrimination on the basis of work and descent, and that such measures are respected and implemented by all State authorities at all levels;

  3. Urges Governments to ensure that appropriate legal penalties and sanctions, including criminal sanctions, are prescribed for and applied to all persons or entities within the jurisdiction of the Governments who may be found to have engaged in practices of discrimination on the basis of work and descent;

  4. Decides to entrust Mr. Goonesekere with the task of preparing, without financial implications, a working paper on the topic of discrimination based on work and descent, in order to:

    1. identify communities in which discrimination based on work and descent continues to be experienced in practice,

    2. examine existing constitutional legislative and administrative measures for the abolition of such discrimination, and

    3. make any further concrete recommendations and proposals for the effective elimination of such discrimination as may be appropriate in the light of such examination;

  5. Decides to continue consideration of this question at its fifty-third session under the same agenda item.

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