World Bulletin / News Desk

Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) held on Sunday a meeting of Intergovernmental Group of Experts for the Establishment of an OIC Independent Human Rights Commission in Jeddah, OIC said in a statement on its website.

OIC Secretary-general, Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, presided at the headquarters of the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah, it said.

The meeting was devoted to discussing a document prepared by the OIC General Secretariat that lays out an initial vision for the projected commission. The General Secretariat has conducted extensive studies and contacts with relevant international bodies in connection with the endeavor, was written in the statement, it reported.

Contacts included in particular the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNHCHR), the Geneva Institute for Human Rights (GIHR), and the OIC Group at the UN Geneva Office.

The document examined by the participants in the meeting contains a broad overview of the components of the planned commission, a description of the nature of its work, its appellation, its principles, its objectives and functions, its members and experts, its recommendations and the quorum, besides other aspects bearing on the activities and responsibilities to be entrusted with the commission.

The Secretary General underscored in a speech he delivered before the meeting that human rights and man's dignity are an integral part of Islam and core components of Islamic culture and heritage, according to the website.

He pointed out that international interest in the issue of human rights has spawned exponentially over the past two decades, adding that the complexity of the fields of human rights inevitably call for the need to refine the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in keeping with the current global human rights discourse.

The Secretary General underlined that the establishment of an independent and permanent human rights commission falls within the dual framework of implementing Article 5 of the new OIC Charter, the statement said.

Güncelleme Tarihi: 14 Nisan 2009, 07:58