In a historic move towards advancing intersectional justice, UN Women, in partnership with the Stakeholder Group on Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (SG-CDWD), has released its first-ever global policy brief on women belonging to communities facing discrimination based on work and descent. Titled “Women Belonging to Communities Discriminated Against Based on Work and Descent: Advancing Intersectional Rights and Justice”, the paper sheds unprecedented light on a vast but underrecognized human rights issue affecting more than 270 million people globally.
Moderated by world-renowned human rights expert Professor Gay McDougall, Vice-Chair of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the launch event gathered top voices from the United Nations system to highlight the urgency of action. In her opening remarks, McDougall underlined that gender equality without recognizing how deeply entrenched caste, race, and social status-based discrimination intersect with patriarchy to marginalize millions of women worldwide.
The document focuses on women and girls from Descent Communities who experience Discrimination on Work and Descent (DWD). Such groups including Dalits in South Asia, Roma in Europe, Haratines in Africa, and Quilombola in Latin America, to name some of the most known groups from each continent, who endure systemic and often violent exclusion rooted in hereditary occupations, caste, and notions of “purity” and “pollution.” These women face multiple, overlapping forms of discrimination that affect every aspect of life—from education and healthcare to bodily autonomy and political representation.
Ms Ashwini K.P., UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism welcomed the release and similar sentiments were echoed by Mr. Nicolas Levrat, UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues.
The policy paper is grounded in legal analysis, community consultations, and research from across continents. It outlines a range of challenges faced by women from communities discriminated against based on work and descent, including forced and informal labour, barriers to healthcare and education, gender-based violence coupled with impunity, social stigma, institutional neglect, and exclusion from decision-making spaces.
At the same time, it highlights promising practices. In Nepal, for instance, gender quotas have resulted in the election of over 6,500 Dalit women to local offices. In Colombia, cultural rights programmes have been established to support Palenque women leaders.
To address these pressing issues, the paper calls for urgent action. Key recommendations include the adoption of targeted anti-discrimination laws, the collection of disaggregated data to uncover hidden inequalities, the meaningful inclusion of CDWD women in policy design and implementation, and increased international support for grassroots women’s organizations.
The launch follows a landmark development on the African continent: the adoption of the historic resolution by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), which formally recognizes caste and caste-like systems as a continued reality in Africa. This resolution is the first of its kind, acknowledging the existence and impacts of descent-based discrimination beyond Asia.
As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk noted in his opening address at the 59th session of the Human Rights Council:
“The first resolution on Discrimination based on Work and Descent, adopted by the ACHPR is an important step to address deep seeded stigma”
The release of this policy paper marks a major step forward in global advocacy for CDWD women. It challenges governments, international organizations, and civil society to act boldly in dismantling systems of discrimination that have persisted for centuries.
The full policy brief is available via UN Women website here: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2025/07/women-belonging-to-communities-discriminated-against-based-on-work-and-descent
