Source: www.iheu.org
[HPI note: due to technical problems, this article appeared truncated in yesterday’s edition of HPI.]
LONDON, UK, June 10, 2006: Government representatives, activists and experts from around the world will address the first “World Conference on Untouchability” at Conway Hall Humanist Centre, London, UK, on June 9 and 10, 2009. The conference is organized by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) to explore a problem that afflicts nearly 250 million people in countries from Japan to Nigeria.
“Untouchability” – the social exclusion of people because of the population they are born into – is a problem in diverse cultures. Some examples are less known than others; the list includes Bangladesh, Burma, India, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Nigeria and Pakistan. This is the first conference of its kind to explore untouchability in many different cultures and to bring together activists to share strategies.
Speakers include political leaders Lord Desai of St. Clement Danes, from the British House of Lords, and Mahendra Paswan, Nepal’s Minister for Land Reform, as well as grassroots campaigners against untouchability, including Babu Gogineni in India and Leo Igwe in Nigeria.
“The international community seems to want to ignore the dehumanizing discrimination experienced by ‘untouchables’ across the world,” says Sonja Eggerickx, president of IHEU.