Wednesday, July 8, 2026 | 6pm to 7:30pm
25 West 43rd Street, 10th Floor, Suite 1000
between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan
In-Person: RSVP | Zoom: RSVP
Across the globe, millions of people continue to face systemic discrimination, exclusion, and unequal opportunities based entirely on their inherited status, descent, or ancestral occupation. While deeply associated with the caste system in South Asia, these rigid intergenerational hierarchies affect diverse global populations, including the Roma in Europe, Haratine in Africa, Buraku in Japan, Osu in Nigeria, and Quilombola and Palenque communities in Latin America. Despite distinct cultural origins, these groups share a common reality of deep-seated social stigma, occupational segregation, and severe barriers to basic human rights.
To confront this global challenge, this seminar brings together scholars, students, practitioners, and policymakers to foster a comparative understanding of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD). The discussion will examine how these inherited social hierarchies are reproduced through contemporary institutions and social norms, specifically tracking how exclusion restricts access to education, employment, housing, healthcare, and political participation across different regions.
Additionally, the seminar will analyze how modern forces like migration, urbanization, and globalization are reshaping both the nature of this exclusion and the strategies used for grassroots resistance. Participants will reflect on the growing recognition of descent-based discrimination within international human rights platforms, evaluating the current responses of the United Nations, civil society, and academic institutions as they work toward a more coherent global framework to eradicate inherited-status discrimination.
Moderator: Paul Divakar Namala
Speakers:
- Queen Bisseng
- Gabriela Hrabanova
- Beena Pallical
- Johannes Butscher
Organizers
Asian American / Asian Research Institute – CUNY
Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (GFoD)
The Inclusivity Project
Author Bio
Paul Divakar Namala is a globally recognized human rights advocate and the Executive Director of The Inclusivity Project (TIP) and Convenor of the Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (GFoD). For more than three decades, he has worked to advance the rights of communities affected by caste, descent-based discrimination, and inherited-status systems. He has played a leading role in bringing these issues to international human rights forums, including the United Nations, and is actively engaged in efforts to develop a global normative framework on Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent. His work focuses on social justice, equality, inclusion, and strengthening global solidarity among affected communities.
Queen Bisseng is a human rights advocate from Cameroon and serves as Africa Coordinator for The Inclusivity Project and the Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD). She has extensive experience working with communities affected by descent-based discrimination, slavery-descendant status, and other forms of inherited exclusion across Africa. Her work focuses on community mobilization, women’s leadership, youth engagement, and advocacy with regional and international human rights mechanisms, including the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. She is actively involved in strengthening networks and advancing recognition of CDWD issues across the African continent.
Gabriela Hrabanova is a prominent Roma human rights advocate and policy expert from Europe. She serves as Executive Director of the European Roma Grassroots Organisations Network (ERGO Network), one of the leading Roma-led advocacy organizations in Europe. Her work focuses on combating antigypsyism, advancing Roma equality and inclusion, strengthening grassroots participation, and promoting Roma representation in policymaking processes at national and European levels. She has been a strong voice in connecting Roma experiences with broader global discussions on structural discrimination, racial justice, and human rights.
Beena Pallical is a distinguished Dalit feminist leader and human rights defender from India. She serves as General Secretary of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) and has worked extensively on issues of caste discrimination, gender justice, access to rights, and accountability. She has been at the forefront of advocacy efforts addressing violence and discrimination against Dalit women and marginalized communities and has represented these concerns before national, regional, and international human rights forums. Her work emphasizes the intersection of caste, gender, and social exclusion.
Johannes Butscher is a human rights and development practitioner based in Colombia who has worked extensively with Afro-descendant and historically marginalized communities across Latin America. His work has focused particularly on supporting Quilombola communities in Brazil, Palenque and Afro-descendant communities in Colombia, and other groups facing structural exclusion linked to historical systems of slavery, race, and inherited social hierarchies. He has been actively engaged in promoting community rights, social inclusion, and international advocacy, while fostering collaboration between grassroots movements, civil society organizations, academic institutions, and international human rights actors. Through his engagement with the Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent, he contributes to building comparative understanding and global solidarity among communities affected by inherited forms of discrimination and exclusion.
