Seattle has made history in both the US and the world by passing a measure explicitly banning caste discrimination, becoming the first major city in the US to do so. It also comes at a time when caste discrimination persists in many parts of the globe.
It’s official: our movement has WON a historic, first-in-the-nation ban on caste discrimination in Seattle! Now we need to build a movement to spread this victory around the country pic.twitter.com/1mBJ1W3v6j
A draft ordinance was submitted to the city council of Seattle, Washington proposing a law against caste discrimination in the United States. If the city council approves this ordinance, then this will be the first time the U.S. prohibits caste discrimination.
After a series of attacks against Muslims in Canada, the Canadian government appointed the country’s first-ever Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia to fight rising anti-Muslim discrimination and hatred in the country.
On January 13, the US Supreme Court agreed to consider a case of religious discrimination dismissed by a lower court.
The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to consider what employers must do to accommodate religious employees, among eight new cases it added. https://t.co/GsCJDFX1u1
Human excretion was found in a Dalit community's water tank. Authorities find the practice of caste discrimination still prevalent in a village in Tamil Nadu.
On November 18, a Dalit woman passed through a village in the Chamarajanigar District of Karnataka, India. After the woman was seen drinking water from the upper-caste water tank located near a temple, the villagers drained the tank and “purified” it with gomutra (cow urine).
Upper caste Hindus in Karnataka, India, ‘purified’ a water tank with cow urine after a Dalit woman drank water from it! This is the tweet. https://t.co/nk5ox9S1uV
UN member states have called out India to improve its human rights record.
During a Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of New Delhi's human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), UN member states advised India to take a stronger stance on sexual violence and religious discrimination. The UPR, conducted every four years, evaluates member states' human rights records. Any member state may query the state being reviewed and offer suggestions.
The state of California has been named in a complaint filed on September 22 by the Hindu American Foundation. According to the Hindu group, the original lawsuit "violates the constitutional rights of Hindu Americans."
Violent protests erupted over the death of a 15-year-old Dalit boy who was severely beaten by an "upper caste" teacher for making a mistake on an exam in the Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh.
