TOP > Descent-based discrimination > Work and descent-based discrimination at the UN ＞ SectionDescription

Until recently, caste discrimination and Buraku discrimination have been dealt with only within their respective countries; international society, exemplified by such organizations as the United Nations, has done little to resolve these issues on an international level. IMADR has partnered with Buraku and Dalit people, with researchers, and with domestic and international organizations to raise awareness of this type of discrimination as a phenomenon shared across the globe and has introduced the category of discrimination based on “work and descent” as a means of organizing together around shared experiences of discrimination. As a result, the United Nations has recognized discrimination based on “descent” and “work and descent” as an issue that must be dealt with on an international level, and has started to assemble a set of standards and principles aimed at its resolution.

Specifically, on the level of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), this type of discrimination has been dealt with since the latter half of the 90’s as discrimination based on “descent” as stipulated in the first article of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). In August of 2000, CERD held a thematic discussion on “descent” as stipulated in article one of the Convention and adopted the “General Recommendation 29 on Descent.”

This General Recommendation re-confirms that discrimination based on a caste or other similar social status system is included in the term “descent” and produced basic measures that each country must undertake for the elimination of this form of discrimination. This was the first international human rights standard aimed at the elimination of descent based discrimination.

Additionally, the former UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights has been conducting research on discrimination based on work and descent since 2000, and in 2004 appointed two Special Rapporteurs, Professors Yokota and Chung, to work on this issue. It was decided that, over the course of three years, they generate a report bringing together a set of “Guidelines and Principles” aimed at the resolution of this issue. Presently, as part of the restructuring of the UN, the Human Rights Sub-Commission has been abolished and restarted as an Advisory Committee to the Human Rights Council IMADR, alongside the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN), is urging the UN and governments to secure that the “principles and guidelines” drafted by the Special Rapporteurs do not simply drift away but rather that they are formally adopted at the UN.

IMADR is mobilizing publicity and providing support in order for this human rights standard to have beneficial effect on the lives of people such as the Buraku and the Dalit who face discrimination based on work and descent.