Islamic world faces selectivity in human rights: OIC Chief at UNHRC

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Islamic world faces selectivity in human rights: OIC Chief at UNHRC

OIC Secretary General called on the Geneva-based UNHRC to focus on economic, social and cultural rights

Wednesday February 27, 2019 8:18 PM, UNA-OIC

Geneva: Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Dr. Yousef Al-Othaimeen urged the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to find appropriate solutions to the problems and issues faced by Muslim countries and communities with regard to selectivity in the field of human rights.

At the same time, Al-Othaimeen emphasized OIC's firm belief in the utility of cultural diversity and its importance in addressing the countless challenges facing humanity in the fields of peace, security, human rights and development.

In his speech during the high-level segment of the UNHRC 40th regular session in Geneva on February 25-27, the OIC chief said that the intellectual and political resistance to multiculturalism is one of the underlying causes of the resurgence of racism and xenophobia, including their contemporary manifestation of Islamophobia.

He added that the OIC, in cooperation with its partners, had developed a comprehensive and consensual approach to deal with incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence based on religion, in the shape of the UNHRC resolution 16/18, which must be fully implemented, including the reactivation of the Istanbul Process.

Al-Othaimeen called for the utilization of all platforms to promote pluralism, push for dialogue among cultures and religions, as well as respect for tolerance and integration, to defeat the forces of bigotry and discrimination. He stressed that the OIC explicitly denounces the ideological narratives adopted by all terrorist and extremist groups using religion, ideology or cultural and ethnic superiority.

The secretary general called on the Geneva-based UNHRC to focus on economic, social and cultural rights, which are no less important than other rights, adding that stability, growth and development remain key objectives for developing countries. He affirmed OIC's readiness to cooperate and engage constructively with every process that is aimed at strengthening the edifice of universal human rights.

Also in his speech, Al-Othaimeen touched on the human rights suffering faced by the Rohingya Muslim minority, the Palestinians and the Kashmiris. He also reiterated OIC’s condemnation of the Khojaly massacre committed by Armenia in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

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