Erased Twice Over: UN Paper Highlights Urgent Reforms for Women Facing Descent-Based Discrimination

A landmark policy paper released in July 2025 by UN Women, in collaboration with the Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (GFoD), casts a spotlight on the urgent need for intersectional rights-based approaches to combat structural discrimination faced by women from Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD).

These communities, estimated to number over 270 million people globally, include Dalits in South Asia, Haratines in Africa, Roma in Europe, and Quilombola in Latin America. The report highlights how gender and descent-based discrimination interact to produce unique, persistent violations of human rights against women, who remain absent from mainstream women’s movements and marginalized within their own communities. Framed through the lens of international human rights law, the report offers a comprehensive overview of entrenched challenges alongside examples of promising policy practices and concludes with robust recommendations to states and UN agencies alike.

Read the full report below:

Among the central concerns outlined in the paper is the enduring stigma arising from caste-based notions of purity and pollution. These beliefs are particularly weaponized against women in DWD communities, leading to social exclusion, denial of access to basic services, and extreme vulnerability to gender-based violence. Women engaged in traditional caste-based occupations such as manual scavenging, for example, often face dehumanizing treatment and sexual exploitation despite formal bans on such labor. This stigma is not confined to one region or culture—it operates globally through varied forms of inherited status, occupational hierarchy, and mythologized social inferiority.

Labour discrimination emerges as another deeply rooted problem. CDWD women are routinely trapped in exploitative, low-paid, and segregated employment sectors, frequently without the legal protections afforded to others. In some contexts, they are subject to forced labour or traditional practices such as the devadasi system, which sanctifies sexual exploitation under the guise of religious duty. These practices persist in part due to inadequate legislation or lack of implementation where laws exist. Patriarchal norms further reinforce their marginalization, preventing their participation in education, leadership, or community advocacy.

Multidimensional poverty, compounded by structural inequality and descent-based discrimination, entrenches cycles of deprivation. The UN’s own data confirm that women from CDWD communities face disproportionate barriers to healthcare, land rights, water, sanitation, and social protection.

These material deprivations are compounded by discriminatory policies or omissions in national development agendas.

For instance, access to education remains unequal, with high dropout rates, exclusion from tertiary education, and even algorithmic bias in educational technology that penalizes students from marginalized communities. “Instances of segregation and the lack of inclusive curricula or pedagogical approaches further marginalize these communities. Critically, the absence of targeted interventions, such as affirmative action policies or need-based scholarship schemes, has significantly limited CDWD women’s access to secondary and tertiary education, thereby reinforcing cycles of intergenerational disadvantage. These systemic inequalities are increasingly compounded by the deployment of data-driven technologies in educational settings,” the report added.

Access to healthcare and bodily autonomy is further obstructed by cultural stigmas and institutional discrimination. “There have been documented instances where unlawful demolitions of Romani settlements have left pregnant women and infants homeless, highlighting the urgent need for EU intervention to uphold housing rights and prevent further discrimination,” the report added.

The consequences are particularly stark in reproductive and maternal health, where women are denied basic services or forced to navigate bureaucratic and financial hurdles without adequate state support. Similarly, CDWD women are underrepresented in political decision-making structures, with few pathways into leadership or public office despite gender quotas in some regions.

Violence against women from these communities is not merely personal—it is political. Gender-based violence, including rape, trafficking, and forced prostitution, is used both as a mechanism of social control and retaliation for asserting rights.

In many contexts, state authorities are either complicit or indifferent. Reporting remains low due to distrust in law enforcement and judicial processes, while impunity for perpetrators remains high. Where these women act as human rights defenders, they face increased threats, including intimidation, assault, and even murder.

The report also identifies harmful traditional practices that target girls and women from CDWD communities. Early marriage, bonded labor, and culturally sanctioned sexual exploitation—such as the trokosi system in parts of West Africa—continue despite international norms. These practices are often justified under the guise of tradition, with little regard for their devastating impact on girls’ autonomy, health, and life chances.

Despite this grim picture, the report points to select good practices that can serve as models.

These include Nepal’s gender quota laws that successfully increased Dalit women’s political participation and Colombia’s cultural programs recognizing Afro and Roma women’s narratives. The JUSTROM initiative in Europe, aimed at improving Roma women’s access to justice, is another example of targeted legal empowerment. However, such interventions remain fragmented, often underfunded, and lacking systemic integration.

To address these entrenched challenges, the report recommends a series of comprehensive and coordinated actions.

First, states must collect disaggregated, gender-sensitive data to inform policy and legislative change. Second, there is an urgent need to standardize the terminology of descent-based discrimination—explicitly recognizing caste and analogous systems—within international law, particularly the ICERD. Countries should adopt or strengthen national legal frameworks, design targeted action plans for CDWD women, and ensure representation in policymaking and governance structures.

Equally vital is the insistence on meaningful participation by CDWD women in all stages of policy design, implementation, and monitoring. The report calls on UN agencies to institutionalize their involvement and support community-led dialogues that confront both patriarchy and structural racism. It also emphasizes the necessity of linguistic inclusivity—translating key materials into community languages to foster grassroots empowerment.

Ultimately, the policy paper affirms that dismantling systemic exclusion requires sustained, intersectional, and collaborative efforts across governments, civil society, and international institutions. Only by centering the voices and leadership of women from CDWD communities can we advance toward a world of substantive equality and human dignity for all.