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Ms. Ashwini K.P.
Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism
Ms. 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.
Ms. Ashwini K.P. served as an assistant professor in India. She is also a co-founder of Zariya: Women’s Alliance for Dignity and Equality. As part of her research and activism, she has focused on policies related to marginalised communities, in particular to support their livelihood and access to education. She has focused on social exclusion, particularly descent and occupation based discrimination in South Asia. Ms. Ashwini K.P. has represented Indian Dalit women in various civil society groups helping them in strategizing on how to ensure that women from marginalised communities are empowered and are in decision-making roles in activism and mainstream social movements.
Ms. Ashwini K.P. has previously worked as a researcher with Project Mukti, a research organization. She worked as a Senior Campaigner on Business and Human Rights with Amnesty International India, as a guest faculty member of the Department of Political Science at Mount Carmel College, and as Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science of St. Joseph’s College in India.
Ms. Ashwini K.P has authored several publications on the issues of discrimination, including “International Dimension of Caste-Based Discrimination: A Global Perspective of Dalit Human Rights, Vol. 7 Issue, 6 June, 2021” and “Mapping Social Exclusion in Higher Education: Experiences of Dalit students” (2017), in Ambrose Pinto (ed.) Politics of Caste Dynamics, ISBN: 978-93-86516-15-2, Bangalore, ATC Publishers”.
Ms. Ashwini K.P. earned her Bachelor’s Degree in History, Economics and Political Science from Mount Carmel College, India. She holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science from St. Joseph’s College, India and MPhil and Ph.D. in South Asian Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.