HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Forum on Minority Issues Geneva, 15-16 December 2008 Dr. Sadik M. AL-Jabran 2008 OHCHR Minority Fellow Legal Advisor, Kingdom of Saudi, Arabia Email: aljubran@gmail.com Intervention for item V or VII of the provisional agenda The Learning Environment and School Governance/The Content and Delivery of the Curriculum Madam President of the Forum on Minority Issues I have read with much attention the draft recommendations of this forum, which are based on the experience of minorities in the world. I believe that such recommendations would be supportive for the rights of the Shiite minority in Saudi Arabia, which only 15-20% of this population enjoys the right to education in accordance with international human rights standards. Madam President… We and our desire to advance the well being of our country and all of its citizens and given the education system is one of the most important factors contributing to the advancement of civilization founded on tolerance, therefore, we present these recommendations that we hope will be embraced by our government. 1. There should be a building of educational rights and educational policies on the principles of citizenship, equality and non-discrimination among citizens for whatever reason. This is because the basic principles of international human rights asserts it is the duty of the states to carry out the right to carry out to the best of its abilities the rights to education through equality and without discrimination. States must enact and amend legislation where appropriate in order to eliminate discrimination. In our country, there is still a narrowing of opportunities for the Shiite minority to naturally enroll in universities, in particular in medical and scientific disciplines. Not allowing them the opportunities to join institutes, security universities and diplomatic institutes. 2. Provide the opportunity for minorities to integrate them into society and compensate for former deprivation from educational institutions and administrative positions in order to ensure their fair representation and restoring the balance in this context. Thus this will allow minorities to have the right to participate in public life and in decisions affecting their education system, including the right to design and implement programmes of education and management of educational institutions. States should create conditions that enable minority representatives to actively participate in the formulation and implementation of