On 15 and 16 December 2008, the United Nations (UN) held the inaugural session of the new Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva focusing on the issue of education and minorities. Around 100 participants representing minority and indigenous groups from around the world attended the session.
Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher was selected by the UN to participate in the session on behalf of Adalah as an expert in the field. Experts from around the world were invited to the session to give comments on a draft recommendation on minorities and the right to education that may be adopted as an authoritative interpretation of international human rights law.
Attorney Zaher provided comments on the subjects of the allocation of budgets for minority education; access to education for minorities, in particular girls; and the content of the educational curricula. In general, Adalah welcomed the draft recommendations as a positive step in the defense and promotion of minority rights and education rights. Attorney Zaher's comments proposed various modifications to the draft aimed at strengthening its language regarding the positive obligations of states to ensure that minorities do not face discrimination in education, and to bring it further into line with the provisions of international conventions, in particular the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). She also proposed revisions to ensure that the needs of girls and women, who are often the victims of compound discrimination on the basis of their national or ethnic belonging and their sex, are represented throughout the document.
Background
The Forum on Minority Issues was established in 2007 to provide a platform for promoting dialogue and cooperation on issues pertaining to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. The purpose of the forum is to provide thematic contributions and expertise to the work of the independent expert on minority issues as well as to further the implementation of the Declaration of the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities globally.
The draft recommendation was prepared by renowned international law experts in the fields of education and minority rights and members of the UN human rights treaty bodies. It focuses on the need for governments to adopt legislative and policy frameworks that ensure the protection of minorities in the education system and guarantees for the implementation of such policies. The policies and practices outlined in the draft aim to preserve minority languages, increase minority participation in decision-making and representation in the selection of curriculum content, eliminate racism within school systems, add emphasis on the education of girls, and increase state responsibility for enrollment of minority students and teachers in the education system. The Forum was open to the participation of states, UN bodies, intergovernmental organizations, national and international organizations in the field of human rights, academics and experts on minority issues and other NGOs.