Progress Toward New International Standard on Discrimination Based on Work and Descent

Progress Toward New International Standard on Discrimination Based on Work and Descent

At the public closing of the 117th Session on 1 May 2026, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) announced that a General Recommendation on Communities Discriminated on the basis of Work and Descent will be taken up for discussion and drafting. This marks a significant milestone in a long-standing process to secure…

Centring Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD) Women in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

The Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (GFoD) has submitted a powerful input to the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls, exposing how digitalization and AI are deepening the marginalization of CDWD women—particularly Dalit, Roma, Quilombola, Haratine, Osu, and other historically oppressed communities. The document shows how limited digital access,…

Beyond the Margins: A CDWD Youth Vision for a Post-Doha Declaration World

For centuries and ages, Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD) have lived at the harshest edges of social and economic exclusion. Yet across regions from Dalit and Burakumin communities in South Asia to Roma settlements in Europe, from Haratin groups in Mauritania to Palenque and Quilombola and Palenque territories in Latin America  youth are…

From Recognition to Real Change: Advancing Equality for CDWD in Africa

Halimatou Ceesey, Senior Rights Expert at the Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (GFoD), delivered a powerful address at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul. She welcomed the adoption of Resolution 619, a landmark recognition of caste-based discrimination across Africa, but emphasized that acknowledgment must be matched with…