Introduction

'Introduction' to David Keane and Annapurna Waughray (eds.), Fifty Years of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination: A Living Instrument (Manchester University Press, 2017) This is the very first edited collection on International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the oldest of the UN international human rights treaties. It draws together a range of commentators including current or former members of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), along with academic and other experts, to discuss the meaning and relevance of the treaty on its fiftieth anniversary. The contributions examine the shift from a narrow understanding of racial discrimination in the 1960s, premised on countering colonialism and apartheid, to a wider meaning today drawing in a range of groups such as minorities, indigenous peoples, caste groups, and Afro-descendants. In its unique combination of CERD and expert analysis, the collection acts as an essential guide to the international understanding of racial discrimination and the pathway towards its elimination

Ensuring protection against caste discrimination in Britain: Should the Equality Act 2010 be extended?

: Section 97 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 requires the addition of caste to the Equality Act 2010 by secondary legislation as ‘an aspect of’ the protected characteristic of race; but despite being mandated, no secondary legislation has been introduced and the addition of caste remains contested by some academics, civil society organisations, and politicians who question the adequacy of any definition of caste, the estimates of the extent of caste discrimination, and whether legal protection against caste discrimination already exists under the Equality Act. In this article we assess whether legal protection against caste discrimination is now assured following the Employment Tribunal judgment in September 2015 in Tirkey v Chandhok & Anor which held that discrimination on grounds of caste, depending on the facts, might be capable of falling within the scope of race as currently defined in the Equality Act. We argue that Tirkey is significant but not decisive and that it remains open to government to extend the Equality Act to cover caste

Caste in Britain: Contextualising the British Government's 2017 Public Consultation on Caste and Equality Law

The United Kingdom government has started a public consultation on caste in Great Britain and the equality law with the official response expected soon. British Dalits have demanded protection in legislation from caste discrimination for many years, but have faced concerted opposition not just to legislation but even to raising the issue at all, mainly from faith-based organisations and a handful of politicians and civil society actors, some of whom object to any legal protection against caste discrimination, including developments in case law which might extend protection through the existing Equality Act from discrimination based on ethnic origins to discrimination based on caste

Introduction

This is the very first edited collection on International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the oldest of the UN international human rights treaties. It draws together a range of commentators including current or former members of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), along with academic and other experts, to discuss the meaning and relevance of the treaty on its fiftieth anniversary. The contributions examine the shift from a narrow understanding of racial discrimination in the 1960s, premised on countering colonialism and apartheid, to a wider meaning today drawing in a range of groups such as minorities, indigenous peoples, caste groups, and Afro-descendants. In its unique combination of CERD and expert analysis, the collection acts as an essential guide to the international understanding of racial discrimination and the pathway towards its elimination

Defining “Science-based Targets”

The term “science-based targets” has gained recent popularity. It is used to refer both to overall science-based targets (established through intergovernmental treaties), and to their disaggregation into specific science-based targets (determining contributions of individual actors). Biophysical achievability, measurability, and underpinning rationale are requirements for considering a target to be “science-based”