Human Rights Council

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Created on 15 March 2006, by a GA resolution, the Human Rights Council is the most recent inter-governmental committee within the United Nations system and its main purposes are the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe.

Topic A: The Indian Caste System and the Issue of Untouchability

            Divided into castes since their birth, Indian people remain very close to a traditional system to which, in the words of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the only parallel in terms of discrimination is the South African apartheid. Hereditarily, Indian society discriminates individuals’ destinies, constraining their professions, marriages, and all sorts of social relationships. Indian sacred books and religious tradition also endorse many Indians’ belief that the caste system is the best way of maintaining order and peace in the society. However, intrinsically based on hierarchy and segregation, the system originates a group of lower castes that suffer with economic, social, and political restrictions.

Even though caste-based discrimination is condemned by the Indian Constitution, the Indian case reveals how distant can law and reality be from each other, since the governmental measures to ensure the right to equal treatment and opportunities to all caste members seem to be still insufficient. The Supreme Court of India’s jurisprudence is also influenced by the culture of the system, granting unequal treatment to individuals of different castes.

In this sense, the discussion on this topic shall focus on strategies to improve the human rights situation of all Indian citizens, including the “untouchables”. In which ways the caste system can be considered discriminative and how to conciliate quality improvement and the respect for the Indian culture are among the questions that will be addressed.

Topic B: Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue for a Culture of Peace

            Religious traditions pose considerable challenges for what is nowadays regarded as human rights and fundamental freedoms. Contradictions pertaining to this issue are due to the discussion on the dichotomy between what is the primary principle of the institution of these rights – their universality – and the possible need for the reinterpretation of these rights on the basis of cultural relativism.    

The discussion described above meets some essential human rights concerns, especially with respect to non-discrimination and tolerance which support the promotion of other rights like the rights of freedom of thought, conscience, and belief. Nevertheless, the existing contradictions between them, and the challenge posed by discrimination and intolerance, raise a reflection about the extent to which those rights are related, on the one hand, to structural intolerance in regard to a series of Western values that represent the basis of a harmonious international community and, on the other hand, to intolerant responses from this very West, not less discriminative or doctrinaire.

Recognizing the rights of freedom of thought, conscience, and belief as well as rejoicing “in the richness of diversity”[1] represent an undeniable step towards the effective universality of human rights, since it seems impossible for them to achieve a universal character without taking diversity into account. In this sense, both the principles are interrelated, do cooperate with each other, and, above all, depend on each other. The recognition of the need to adopt a systematic interreligious and intercultural dialogue tradition among nations is a clear tendency in the UN, and the Human Rights Council is expected to play a central role at the strengthening of an effective dialogue on a culture of peace.