1
2
f)
Protect and promote freedom of religion and belief, and the practice and
observance thereof, as well as respect for and promotion of plurality of religious
and spiritual beliefs, and
g)
Promote anti-racial, multicultural and interfaith harmony, dialogue and
cooperation for peace and development.
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
SECTION 3. Definition of Terms -
(1) " Discrimination shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference
made on the basis of ethnicity, race, religion or belief, disability or other status, which
has an effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or
exercise by a person, group of persons or institutions of their human rights and
fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field,
especially including, but not limited to, employment, livelihood, housing, education
and basic services.
.
(2) "Ethnic Origin" includes race, national origin, and ethno-linguistic origin;
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
(3) "Indigenous Peoples" shall, as provided under Section 3(h) of Chapter II of RA. No.
8371 or the Indigenous People'S Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997", refers to a group of people
or homogenous societies identified by self-ascription by others, who have continuously
lived as an organized community on communally-bounded and defined territory, and
who have, under claiins of ownership since time immemorial occupied, possessed, and
utilized such territories, sharing common bonds of language, customs, traditions, and
other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through resistance to political, social, and
cultural inroads of colonization;' 'no~-indigenous religIons and cultures, became
historically differentiated from the majority of Filipinos. ICCs/IPs shall likewise
include peoples who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the
populations which inhabited the country, at the time of conquest or colonizations, or at
the time of inroads of non-indigenous religions and cultures, or the establishment of
present state boundaries, who retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural
and political institutions, but who may have been displaced from their traditional
domains or who may have resettled outside their ancestral domains.
(4) "Religious belief" includes the freedom of thought, conscience and religion;
including the freedom to change one's religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in
community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief,
teaching, practice, worship and observance.
(5) "Racial and religious profiling" means the practice of relying to any degree, on race,
ethnicity and religious affiliations, in selecting individuals to subject to routine or
spontaneous investigatory activities or targeting individuals for suspicion of crime.
Racial profiling rests on the erroneous assumption that any particular individual of one
race or ethnicity is more likely to engage in misconduct than any particular individual
of other races or ethnicities.
(6) "Religious intolerance" means any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference
based on religion or belief and' haVing as its purpose or as its effect nullification or
impairment of the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental
freedoms on an equal basis. This includes practices when a group (e.g. a society,
religious group, non-religious group) specifically refuses to tolerate practices, persons
or beliefs on religious grounds (e.g. intolerance in practices)
2