Global leaders Call for Global Action to End Caste and Descent-Based Discrimination

At the Global Conference for a Caste Free World 2025, held in Toronto, Paul Divakar Namala delivered a powerful address that spotlighted the enduring global crisis of caste and descent-based discrimination. 

His speech, titled “Addressing Caste and Descent-Based Discrimination: A Global Imperative,” formed a cornerstone of the conference's proceedings, weaving together deep historical insight, lived experiences of oppressed communities, and an urgent call to action.

Paul Divakar Namala is a globally recognized human rights advocate, best known for his tireless work on behalf of Descent Communities—socially marginalized groups across the world who suffer systemic exclusion due to caste hierarchies and ancestral occupations. With a career spanning decades, Divakar has been instrumental in organizing and amplifying the voices of Dalits in South Asia, Buraku in Japan, Roma in Europe, Haratine in Mauritania, Osu in Nigeria, Al-Akhdam in Yemen, and Quilombola and Pelenque communities in Latin America.

He currently serves as the Convenor of the Global Forum of Descent Communities (GFoD), a role through which he engages with regional bodies and the United Nations to push for recognition, protection, and justice for these communities. Divakar's contributions have left a significant mark on international and grassroots advocacy alike.

In his address, Divakar painted a sobering picture of the global realities faced by Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD). Despite cultural and geographical differences, these communities share common experiences of exclusion, segregation, and violence. Historically forced into dehumanizing and stigmatized labor, CDWDs continue to endure structural barriers in accessing education, employment, healthcare, housing, and political participation. In many cases, their suffering remains invisible—partly due to the lack of data and formal recognition, and partly due to the persistence of social stigma that relegates them to the periphery of public consciousness.

He detailed the multilayered nature of discrimination faced by CDWD. From segregated living and daily humiliation in India's caste-bound villages to violent hate crimes and police brutality against the Roma in Europe, the systemic nature of this oppression transcends borders. Legal exclusion and underrepresentation in governance further compound the injustice, weakening the ability of these communities to seek redress or protection. For Divakar, the struggle is not merely about social mobility—it is about dignity, justice, and the reclamation of humanity.

Divakar's address was also deeply rooted in global human rights commitments. He emphasized how caste and descent-based discrimination violates the very principles enshrined in international frameworks like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In particular, he highlighted how SDG targets on reducing inequality, ensuring inclusive societies, and promoting access to justice remain far out of reach for CDWDs unless nations make a deliberate and sustained effort to dismantle entrenched hierarchies.

A major theme of his address was solidarity. Paul Divakar urged that the abolition of caste and descent discrimination cannot be left to individual communities or nations alone—it must be tackled through global, intersectional, and collaborative action. He emphasized the importance of cross-border learning, the sharing of strategies, and the formation of alliances between civil society organizations, academic institutions, and government actors. Only through a united front, he said, can the historical wounds inflicted by caste and descent-based exclusion be healed.

A Global Event for a shared dream

The broader context of the conference resonated with Divakar's message. The Global Conference for a Caste Free World 2025 brought together policy-makers, activists, academics, civil society practitioners, and students from across continents. The goal was ambitious: to build global solidarity toward the abolition of caste discrimination, share knowledge and lived experiences, and create actionable pathways for policy reform, reparation, and cultural transformation. Panels and workshops spanned a wide range of topics—from the intersection of caste and gender to the use of digital technology in anti-caste advocacy—and offered both scholarly insights and grassroots perspectives.

As the conference came to a close, the Toronto Declaration was adopted—an emphatic and uncompromising call for global action. Rooted in the understanding that humanity's origins lie in natural evolution and not in divinely ordained social orders, the declaration recognized that caste and racial hierarchies are man-made constructs that have persisted through millennia, particularly in regions like the Indus Valley, where agriculture and stratified social systems took shape simultaneously.

The declaration set a firm deadline—the end of 2025—for the complete eradication of caste and race-based discrimination, with an additional ten-year transition period granted to nations lagging behind. It called for the dismantling of institutional structures that uphold casteism through legal reform, economic redress, and cultural change. The document will be submitted to national governments, human rights bodies, and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR), pushing the global community to honor its moral and legal obligations.

In his concluding remarks, Paul Divakar reminded the audience that “the time for action is now.” The fight against caste discrimination is not only a South Asian or African issue—it is a global human rights challenge that affects millions. By speaking truth to power, fostering solidarity, and refusing to be silenced, Divakar affirmed that a caste-free world is not a utopian ideal—it is an achievable imperative, and one that must begin with all of us, here and now.

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