NCDHR BAGS PRESTIGEOUS HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD

 NCDHR  is honoured with  the  RAFTO Prize  2007, an international human rights prize  awarded to human rights defenders annually. The award is an important recognition for  NCDHR’s work and its  struggle to end discrimination and human rights violations against 167 millions of  Dalits in India.
By this award, the RAFTO Foundation is sending a strong message to the international community that it is time for action to bring an end to the world’s most serious human rights problems.
Worldwide 260 million people suffer caste-based discrimination; daily humiliations, segregation in housing and education, and denial of access to public resources like drinking water. Although caste motivated crimes against Dalits are widespread, the justice system largely fails to punish perpetrators of violence, murder, sexual assault and public humiliations.

Rikke Nöhrlind, Coordinator , International Dalit Solidarity Network, congratulates NCDHR, underlining the importance of its achievements in exposing the injustice: “The perpetrators of crimes and discrimination against Dalits continue to enjoy an outrageous degree of impunity, aided and abetted by inaction and discrimination by the criminal justice system and other officials”.  She concludes: “Human rights activists and Dalits in India are asking ‘How much longer?’ This is the question governments, United Nations and the European Union should be asking themselves and especially the governments of caste affected countries”.

The National Campaign has since its inception in 1998 managed to raise caste discrimination in national and international attention as a serious human rights violation. As a forum of human rights organisations, Dalit activists and intellectuals, it initiated the first ever-signatory campaign for Dalit rights. NCDHR has provided comprehensive and substantive documentation on the human rights violation against Dalits and has engaged leaders in India and international  level  in its  commitment and efforts to get the Indian government and the international community to wake up to this massive, yet largely ignored human rights problem.

With courage and determination, the NCDHR has forcefully pushed a simple message in their own country and internationally: Caste discrimination must end.
The RAFTO Prize is awarded by the RAFTO Foundation every  year. Previous RAFTO laureates include Aung San Suu Kyi and Kim Dae-Jung, who have subsequently been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The award ceremony will take place in Bergen on 2 - 4 November, 2007.