Ms. Ashwini K.P.
Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism
Dr. Ashwini K.P. is the sixth Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. She was appointed by the Human Rights Council in October 2022 and took up her functions as Special Rapporteur on 1 November 2022.
Dr. Ashwini K.P. served as an Assistant Professor in Political Science in India. She has primarily focused on social exclusion, intersectionality, race, and descent-based discrimination in international human right framework. As part of her research and activism, she has focused on policies related to marginalised communities like Dalit and indigenous communities in India. Dr. Ashwini K.P. has represented Indian Dalit women in various civil society groups helping them in strategizing methods to ensure women from marginalised communities are represented in decision-making roles in activism and mainstream social movements. Ms. Ashwini K.P. has previously worked with Amnesty International India. She is the co-founder of a non-profit named Zariya, focused on marginalised women and knowledge creation. She is also a visiting fellow at Stanford University.