Dalits in India

The National Campaign on Dalits Human Rights in India, launched on World Human Rights Day, December 10 1998, has continued to struggle for the abolition of untouchability and for freedom from caste discrimination for 260 million Dalits and other similarly discriminated populations in Asia.

It has organised and conducted many programmes and events at national and state levels, to educate, agitate and demand human rights for Dalits. At the official closure of the year-long campaign, it published a "Black Paper", detailing Dalit human rights, and the failure of the Indian State to adequately fulfill these rights.

The Black paper is a "collective expression of Dalit rights" and include the following sections:

?Dalit Right to Livelihood

?Dalit Women's Right to Gender Equality

?Dalit Right to land and Labour

?Dalit Right to Education

?Dalit Right to Employment and Reservations

?Dalit Right to Life and Security

The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights also promulgated the Charter of Dalit Human Rights, which is a comprehensive summing up of the historical and present situation of Dalits in India.

See Appendix 3: A Charter of Dalit Human Rights

Buraku People in Japan

The discrimination against Buraku people (Buraku-min) in Japan has existed for several centuries.

Furthermore the modernization of Japan saw the establishment of a new social class system with the Emperor at the top and the Buraku people at the bottom; blood connection became as important as in the feudal era. Buraku people were driven into poverty, resulting in intensified prejudice and discrimination against them in many aspects of social life - employment, marriage, education and military service.

Buraku people started to take action against Discrimination with the foundation of the Levers Association in 1922. In the beginning they focussed on denouncing individuals who practised discrimination. Eventually they expanded their activities to denouncing society and systems such as the military, police, schools and administrations, that reproduced and nurtured discrimination.

In 1946, after the war, the anti-discrimination movement was revived under the name "The National Committee for Buraku Liberation". This new movement focussed on the responsibility of the government for being at the root of the cause

In 1955 it changed its name to the Buraku Liberation League (BLL). In 1988, the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) was established. IMADR committed itself to the elimination of discrimination based on social class, racial discrimination, supported the rights of indigenous peoples and the resistance against human rights oppressions all over the world.

See Appendix 4: "Buraku people"