wfn.org | LWI 2009-028 Call for International Christian Solidarity to Overcome Caste-Based Discrimination

["LWFNews" <LWFNews@lutheranworld.org>]

>LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION  
>LWI News online:
>http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html 

Call for International Christian Solidarity to Overcome
Caste-Based Discrimination
UN Durban Review Conference a New Opportunity for Further
Advocacy 

GENEVA, 2 April 2009 (LWI) - Church leaders and human rights
advocates seek to further internationalize the struggle to
overcome caste-based discrimination, a 3,500-year old scourge
that affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The UN
anti-racism review conference to take place in Geneva in late
April will be the first test of this strategy. 

Caste-based discrimination severely affects some 260 million
people worldwide, an estimated 200 million of them in India
alone. In India, considered the biggest democracy in the world,
these discriminated people, once labeled and treated as
"untouchable" due to Brahmanic ritual traditions viewing them as
"polluted" or "polluting," now call themselves Dalits
("oppressed", "crushed"). 

Caste-based discrimination is so deeply entrenched that churches
and human rights groups in India and other caste-affected
countries admit they can hardly solve the problem on their own.
"We need your solidarity," they appealed to participants at a
four-day global ecumenical conference on justice for Dalits held
in Bangkok, Thailand, 21-24 March.

Organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF), and hosted by the Christian
Conference of Asia, the conference drew 95 leaders and
representatives of churches and human rights and development
organizations worldwide. They learned about Dalit history and
culture, the rape and abuse of Dalit women, forced labor,
atrocities against Dalits, and recent killings of Dalit
Christians by Hindu militants. 

Participants at the Bangkok conference recognized progress in
addressing caste-based discrimination by UN bodies such as the
Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination, the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women, and the International Labour
Organization. 

Although they recalled the failure of the 2001 UN World
Conference against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, to
address caste-based discrimination, they saw the upcoming 20-24
April Durban Review Conference in Geneva as a new opportunity to
internationalize the issue. 

In a statement titled the "Bangkok Declaration and Call,"
conference participants called upon the international community
“to offer a platform to those representing Dalit
communities” at the Durban Review Conference, and urged “all
participating governments to accept the inclusion of caste-based
discrimination in those discussions.” 

>Moral Statement and Solidarity

But some Indian activists are not pinning too much hope on the
Durban Review Conference. "The Indian government has ensured that
caste-based discrimination would not be taken up in Geneva," said
Mr Vijaykumar Parmar of the National Campaign for Dalit Human
Rights in India. 

Parmar appealed to the ecumenical family to make a “moral
statement” and help churches around the world become aware of
caste-based discrimination. Among the participants committing
themselves to spreading the word within the churches globally was
Rev. Dr Lesley Anderson, chair of the Caribbean Conference of
Churches (CCC), who pledged to take up the concern with his Roman
Catholic counterpart in the CCC. 

Noting that Guatemala supported the cause of the Dalits at the
2001 Durban UN conference, Parmar suggested that enlisting the
help of even small countries could advance the Dalit struggle for
liberation. 

Through the Bangkok Declaration, participants at the conference
committed themselves to making Dalit liberation a central mission
objective. The Declaration calls upon churches in caste-affected
countries to be “in full solidarity with the Dalit movements
and to speak with a united voice in working towards Dalit
liberation.” 

According to the declaration, churches are expected to implement
awareness-raising programs, empower Dalits, monitor and respond
to caste atrocities, encourage Dalits to express their culture in
worship, liturgy and theology, and support Dalit women’s
initiatives. 

In addition the text appeals to the international community to
campaign for an end to manual scavenging by the end of 2010. This
degrading, caste-based task forced upon Dalits, entails removing
human excrement barehanded from dry toilets and transporting it
in baskets to dumping sites. 

The declaration also calls upon churches in less or differently
affected countries to provide resources for solidarity work in
both their own and caste-affected countries, and to facilitate
mutual exchange and exposure visits. 

Churches in less affected countries are expected to lobby their
governments and to urge private sector companies and banks
investing in India to ensure that their investments encourage
equal job opportunities for Dalits. 

>Global Watch on Violence against Dalits 

To sustain an international campaign against caste-based
discrimination, the Bangkok Declaration calls upon global
ecumenical bodies to develop their ongoing work on justice for
Dalits, particularly by initiating a global watch on violence
against Dalits and communicating this to member churches and
beyond. 

The declaration also asks for the establishment of a task group
to follow up on the Bangkok conference. 

In the meantime, participants at the Bangkok conference pledged
to help internationalize solidarity for the Dalits in their own
countries. 

"With Jesus' love in my heart, I’ll carry and beat the drums
for justice and freedom for the Dalits, the Africans and other
oppressed peoples, including my own, because, as Christians, we
have to carry each other’s burden with courage and without
fear," said Ashraf Tannous of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Jordan and the Holy Land. (852 words)

Read the Bangkok Declaration and find out more about the
conference on the LWF website:
http://www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/OIahr/OIAHR-Dalit_Justice.html

Learn more about WCC work in solidarity with Dalits:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3249 

Feature stories from the conference:

●	World’s churches wrestle with the ancient system of
caste-based discrimination
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1722/worlds-churches-wrestle.html

●	Churches called to recognize image of God in Dalit women:
http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/LWI/EN/2360.EN.html 

●	Solidarity with oppressed groups a Christian
responsibility
http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/LWI/EN/2361.EN.html 

*This press release is issued jointly by the LWF and WCC.

>*        *          *

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF
currently has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the
world, with a total membership of 68.5 million. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information
service. Unless specifically noted, material presented does not
represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various
units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation
(LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with
acknowledgment.] 

>LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION
>P. O. Box 2100 CH-1211 
>Geneva 2 Switzerland

>Tel.: +41/22-791 63 69 
>Fax: +41/22-791 66 30
>E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org