Unite d Nations Office of the High Com m is s ion on Hum an Rights Unite d Nations Forum on M inority Is s ue s Inaugural Se s s ion on M inoritie s and Right to Education 15-16 De ce m be r 2008 Palais de Nations , Ge ne va, Sw itze rland Comments on the Draft Recommendations on Minorities and Right to Education By Mucha Shim Quiling-Arquiza Asian Muslim Action Network in the Philippines (AMANPHIL) Indigenous Lumad-Moro Alliance for Appropriate and Lib erating Education (KAALAM) Introduction: Congratulations to the Independent Expert on Minority Issues, Professor Gay McDougall; the Chairperson, Mdm. Viktoria Mohacsi; and the secretariat for this inaugural session of the UN Forum on Minorities. Special thanks for inviting and allowing members of ethnic and religious minority communities to give input on the Forum’s draft on Minorities and Right to Education. We are speaking in this Forum on behalf of two people’s organization the Asian Muslim Action Network in the Philippines (AMANPIL) and the Katutubong Alyansang Lumad-Moro para sa Angkop at Mapagpalayang Edukasyon (Indigenous Lumad and Moro Alliance for Appropriate and Liberating Education). We are affiliated to the national network of Philippine Civil Society Network for Education Reforms or E-Net Philippines that championed the works on the Alternative learning systems (ALS), a pioneering initiative that we could humbly claim helped set the frameworks and contributed significantly in the eventual transformation of the Philippine Department of Education’s Bureau of Non-Formal Education (NFE) to become the Bureau on Alternative Learning Systems (BALS). The BALS has been tasked specifically to oversee the implementation of the so-called “mainstreaming into the public school system” of the madaris or Muslim schools for the Bangsamoro in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) -- a few being privately operated, while majority, traditionally of small and fledgling community-owned “religious instruction” subsisting on community endowment and social contribution, i.e. the sadaqa, zakat and waqaf of ordinary Muslims. On the other hand, by virtue of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997, the Department of Education passed a DEPED Order Number 40 series of 2001 recognizing indigenous people’s education where Lumad people of Mindanao and other indigenous communities in the Philippines owning and operating “schools for living traditions” are allowed accreditation and encouraged to be mainstreamed. These are laudable positive actions that the Philippine government has done so far in recognition of the right to education of minorities in the Philippines. Yet, as is often the frustration among most indigenous and minority peoples is the perennial question of States’ compliance with UN standards. While rules and laws is one thing; effective mechanisms and its faithful implementation is another. Government agencies like Department of Education can only do so much. In the final analysis, the implementation of policies and programs lies in effective legislative actions and government’s political will. I. Comment on the Definition of Education: We agree that ‘Education is not a commodity or service; it is a human right’. Among minority peoples, education is both a right and a tool for our liberation from social marginality and invisibility and an economic vehicle towards our advancement. Towards a fuller, more inclusive definition of education, let me urge this body to incorporate the perspective of faith communities in defining education. Among Muslims, education is an obligation, as we believe in life-long learning as every person’s goal. ‘Seek[ing] knowledge from cradle to grave’, is an Islamic prophetic injunction. In the folk traditions among the Sama ethnic of Bangsamoro, our concept of ‘Ilmuh’ or knowledge is both it being a source of power as much as it being a tool or strategy for mankind’s deliverance from ignorance, passivity and unproductiveness. Education is a path towards enlightenment, awareness and fulfillment of our higher