Unitarian Universalist Holdeen India Partner Martin Macwan Featured in New York Times Article
November 16, 2000
Martin Macwan, whose work with the dalits of India has been funded for seven years by the Unitarian Universalist Holdeen India Program, is the subject of a story in today's New York Times. Macwan will be honored by the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation with its Human Rights award on November 21 in Washington, D.C., and is featured in the story, by Barbara Crossette, which carries the headline, "An 'Untouchable' Says Caste Is Truly a Human Rights Issue."It begins, "A leader of India's Dalits, the "untouchable" underclass of more than 160 million people whose campaign for an end to discrimination is rarely heard in the West, is being honored this month by two major American human rights organizations seeking to raise awareness of the issue."
On Tuesday in New York, Martin Macwan, a lawyer who founded the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, was named by Human Rights Watch as one of five outstanding human rights defenders around the world this year. And in Washington on November 21, Mr. Macwan will receive the 2000 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
Last year, Human Rights Watch published the first book-length report on the conditions of the Dalits and the organization is now also lobbying to put the cause on the agenda of the United Nations' first international conference on racism and discrimination next summer.
"The fact that we're honoring a Martin from India reminds us of yet another Martin from the U.S. who fought racial discrimination in this country," said Stephen Rickard, director of the R.F.K. Center for Human Rights, which will give Mr. Macwan his award in Washington."
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
