With its genesis in the upsurge created by the World Conference against Racism at Durban in 2001, which challenged the conscience of humankind against racism and other forms of inequality, cross-country solidarity building among Dalits has had a decade and a half old history. On that significant occasion, the powerful voice of the strong contingent of civil society organizations reverberated around the globe and caught the imagination of progressive human rights activists and social intellectuals, media pundits and donor partners, UN agencies and international governments regarding the form of hidden apartheid suffered by Dalit communities in India.

This voice grew louder and stronger with Dalit communities in South Asian countries joining the chorus of protest against caste discrimination and violence suffered in their own respective countries, and asserting claims for their rights and entitlements. With the NCDHR-initiated International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN) advocating on the international scene the cause of communities discriminated on the basis of descent and work, the upsurge of Dalit communities for public visibility, global official recognition, and access to rights and entitlements gained force, strength and momentum.

It is in this background that Asian Dalit Rights Forum as a collective of Dalit rights protagonists, originated as a germinal idea at the World Social Forum 2004 in Mumbai, India. This led to events being organized for Dalit rights activists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka at the India Social Forum, Delhi in November 2006. This collective idea of an Asia Dalit Rights Forum gained further clarity of perspective at the Karachi Social Forum in 2007. The rationale for this networking lay in the contiguity of the South Asian region countries, and the commonality of the systemic nature of discrimination and violence suffered by the peoples living in this region.