For centuries and ages, Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD) have lived at the harshest edges of social and economic exclusion. Yet across regions, from Dalit and Burakumin communities in South Asia to Roma settlements in Europe, from Haratin groups in Mauritania to Palenque and Quilombola territories in Latin America, youth are redefining resistance and leadership.
The Doha Political Declaration on social development covers extreme poverty, decent work at living wages, universal social protection, and social exclusions. Although it does not explicitly acknowledge descent-based discrimination, the Call to Action section of the Declaration, in para 30q, calls for the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. This could be a first step towards addressing the many forms of political, economic and social exclusion my communities face, intensified by the exploitation of our lands and natural resources. That is why, at the Doha Summit, we were present in good numbers, offered numerous seminars (“solution sessions”) to explain the effects of discriminations resulting from descent and work, and intervened in many events. GFOD also hosted a well-visited display booth in the convention centre’s exhibition hall.
Youth at the Margins Understand Change Best
Today, CDWD youth find themselves at a historic turning point. Regardless of the political text, UN declarations of themselves do not change the world. Movements do. Communities do. Youth do.
CDWD youth are the ones documenting violence, building digital tools for justice, defending territories, challenging stereotypes, and creating new forms of solidarity. Our knowledge is rooted in lived realities, navigating against systems that wish to perpetuate economic and social exclusion constructed on descent and ascribed occupations. Our action has many forms:
Dalit youth networks in India train communities in legal literacy and digital safety. Roma students in Europe build cross-border solidarity and challenge entrenched biases, and voice their concerns in UN fora. Haratin youth in Mauritania bravely expose caste slavery and create safe reporting spaces. Palenque and Quilombola youth in Mexico defend land rights and promote sustainable livelihoods in the face of extractive industries.
Across continents, CDWD youth are shaping change on the ground and also transforming global spaces. From speaking and moderating sessions at the ECOSOC Youth Forum, the High-Level Political Forum, and the UN Third Committee Youth Forum, to leading local justice initiatives in their own communities, CDWD youth are redefining what representation, leadership, and movement-building look like. These movements show how young people on the margins hold the deepest understanding of both oppression and the pathways to overcome it.
Implementing the Doha Political Declaration Requires Connecting with the Grassroots
(c) GFOD
One of the biggest challenges today is the distance between global spaces and community realities. While the Doha Political Declaration is a milestone, many CSOs working directly at the grassroots remain unaware of its contents or implications. This disconnect weakens collective power.
To make the Declaration meaningful, civil society must prioritize downward accountability:
Information must travel back to communities. Too often, reports sent to UN bodies rely on community stories — but the outcomes of those discussions never return to the same people. This must change.
More awareness sessions and local language trainings are essential. CSOs need to organize workshops, radio programs, youth circles, and simple explainers so every community understands their rights under this and other UN declarations and conventions.
Local organizations must be equipped to monitor and use the Declaration. If grassroots groups understand how to invoke international commitments, they can hold states accountable, influence national policy, and strengthen local advocacy.
The Doha Political Declaration will only create change if communities know it exists.
UN, Governments, and CSOs Must Be Accountable to Grassroots Organizations
Following from the Doha social development summit, we demand clear, shared accountability. The UN must ensure that its commitments reach communities, not as abstract texts, but as practical tools for justice. Governments must integrate the political declaration into national policies, budgets, and data systems, and not limit their engagement to symbolic statements. And CSOs must uphold transparency with the same seriousness they expect from governments: sharing information, reporting back to communities, and involving grassroots actors in every stage of monitoring, and providing the requested resources in full. Without accountability flowing downward, the Declaration will remain a bland UN document, instead of a transformative instrument.
Grassroots Experience Shows What Transformation Looks Like
Across continents, CDWD youth movements have built powerful examples of what justice in action looks like:
Dalit youth collectives using mobile reporting systems to document caste violence;
Roma youth organizations reframing cultural identity and inclusion;
Haratin activists creating safe channels for those escaping hereditary slavery;
Palenque and Quilombola youth protecting lands and ecosystems that hold centuries of ancestral memory.
These successes prove that communities already know how to transform systems, they simply need support, recognition, and information that strengthens their leadership.
A Global Youth Movement Can Redefine Justice
The Doha Political Declaration creates an opportunity for transnational solidarity. Dalit, Roma, Haratin, Palenque, and Quilombola youth can build shared campaigns, exchange strategies, and speak in one voice about discrimination that is global in structure, even if local in form. Such a global movement can reshape debates on equality, labour, rights, and climate justice and push the international system beyond symbolic commitments.
For CDWD youth, the Doha Political Declaration can be a step to recognise, address and begin to transform centuries of inherited exclusion. But for that transformation to fructify, CSOs must ensure that communities are aware of, participate in, and shape every step forward. And at the multilateral arena, youth leaders, in alliances with friends, need to advocate for an explicit inclusion of our rights in forthcoming UN summit resolutions.
Youth from communities historically pushed to the margins are ready to lead. The question now is whether the world will finally follow the knowledge they bring knowledge powerful enough to dismantle systems that once felt unshakeable.
Naveen Gautam: Onwards from the World Summit for Social Development – A CDWD Youth Vision
Author: Naveen Gautam
For centuries and ages, Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD) have lived at the harshest edges of social and economic exclusion. Yet across regions, from Dalit and Burakumin communities in South Asia to Roma settlements in Europe, from Haratin groups in Mauritania to Palenque and Quilombola territories in Latin America, youth are redefining resistance and leadership.
The Doha Political Declaration on social development covers extreme poverty, decent work at living wages, universal social protection, and social exclusions. Although it does not explicitly acknowledge descent-based discrimination, the Call to Action section of the Declaration, in para 30q, calls for the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. This could be a first step towards addressing the many forms of political, economic and social exclusion my communities face, intensified by the exploitation of our lands and natural resources. That is why, at the Doha Summit, we were present in good numbers, offered numerous seminars (“solution sessions”) to explain the effects of discriminations resulting from descent and work, and intervened in many events. GFOD also hosted a well-visited display booth in the convention centre’s exhibition hall.
Youth at the Margins Understand Change Best
Today, CDWD youth find themselves at a historic turning point. Regardless of the political text, UN declarations of themselves do not change the world. Movements do. Communities do. Youth do.
CDWD youth are the ones documenting violence, building digital tools for justice, defending territories, challenging stereotypes, and creating new forms of solidarity. Our knowledge is rooted in lived realities, navigating against systems that wish to perpetuate economic and social exclusion constructed on descent and ascribed occupations. Our action has many forms:
Dalit youth networks in India train communities in legal literacy and digital safety. Roma students in Europe build cross-border solidarity and challenge entrenched biases, and voice their concerns in UN fora. Haratin youth in Mauritania bravely expose caste slavery and create safe reporting spaces. Palenque and Quilombola youth in Mexico defend land rights and promote sustainable livelihoods in the face of extractive industries.
Across continents, CDWD youth are shaping change on the ground and also transforming global spaces. From speaking and moderating sessions at the ECOSOC Youth Forum, the High-Level Political Forum, and the UN Third Committee Youth Forum, to leading local justice initiatives in their own communities, CDWD youth are redefining what representation, leadership, and movement-building look like. These movements show how young people on the margins hold the deepest understanding of both oppression and the pathways to overcome it.
Implementing the Doha Political Declaration Requires Connecting with the Grassroots
One of the biggest challenges today is the distance between global spaces and community realities. While the Doha Political Declaration is a milestone, many CSOs working directly at the grassroots remain unaware of its contents or implications. This disconnect weakens collective power.
To make the Declaration meaningful, civil society must prioritize downward accountability:
Too often, reports sent to UN bodies rely on community stories — but the outcomes of those discussions never return to the same people. This must change.
CSOs need to organize workshops, radio programs, youth circles, and simple explainers so every community understands their rights under this and other UN declarations and conventions.
If grassroots groups understand how to invoke international commitments, they can hold states accountable, influence national policy, and strengthen local advocacy.
The Doha Political Declaration will only create change if communities know it exists.
UN, Governments, and CSOs Must Be Accountable to Grassroots Organizations
Following from the Doha social development summit, we demand clear, shared accountability. The UN must ensure that its commitments reach communities, not as abstract texts, but as practical tools for justice. Governments must integrate the political declaration into national policies, budgets, and data systems, and not limit their engagement to symbolic statements. And CSOs must uphold transparency with the same seriousness they expect from governments: sharing information, reporting back to communities, and involving grassroots actors in every stage of monitoring, and providing the requested resources in full. Without accountability flowing downward, the Declaration will remain a bland UN document, instead of a transformative instrument.
Grassroots Experience Shows What Transformation Looks Like
Across continents, CDWD youth movements have built powerful examples of what justice in action looks like:
These successes prove that communities already know how to transform systems, they simply need support, recognition, and information that strengthens their leadership.
A Global Youth Movement Can Redefine Justice
The Doha Political Declaration creates an opportunity for transnational solidarity. Dalit, Roma, Haratin, Palenque, and Quilombola youth can build shared campaigns, exchange strategies, and speak in one voice about discrimination that is global in structure, even if local in form. Such a global movement can reshape debates on equality, labour, rights, and climate justice and push the international system beyond symbolic commitments.
Declarations Don’t Change the World. People Do.
For CDWD youth, the Doha Political Declaration can be a step to recognise, address and begin to transform centuries of inherited exclusion. But for that transformation to fructify, CSOs must ensure that communities are aware of, participate in, and shape every step forward. And at the multilateral arena, youth leaders, in alliances with friends, need to advocate for an explicit inclusion of our rights in forthcoming UN summit resolutions.
Youth from communities historically pushed to the margins are ready to lead. The question now is whether the world will finally follow the knowledge they bring knowledge powerful enough to dismantle systems that once felt unshakeable.
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