Table Of ContentThe Organ ization
of Islamic Cooperation
and H uman Rights
PENNSYLVANIA STUDIES IN HUMAN RIGHTS
Bert B. Lockwood, Series Editor
A complete list of books in the series
is available from the publisher.
The Organ ization
of Islamic Cooperation
and H uman Rights
Edited by
Marie Juul Petersen and Turan Kayaoglu
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
Copyright © 2019 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used
for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this
book may be reproduced in any form by any means without
written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 - 4112
www . upenn . edu / pennpress
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Petersen, Marie Juul, editor. | Kayaoglu, Turan, editor.
Title: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and human rights / edited
by Marie Juul Petersen, Turan Kayaoglu.
Other titles: Pennsylvania studies in human rights.
Description: 1st editon. | Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2019] |
Series: Pennsylvania studies in human rights | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018047537 | ISBN 9780812251197 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. | Human rights. |
Human rights—International cooperation. | Human rights—Islamic countries.
Classification: LCC KZ5286 .O74 2019 | DDC 341.4/8091767—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018047537
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Marie Juul Petersen and Turan Kayaoglu
PART I. FOUNDATIONS
Chapter 1. Setting the Scene 19
Anthony Tirado Chase
Chapter 2. The Human Rights Agenda of the OIC:
Between Pessimism and Optimism 40
Mashood A. Baderin
Chapter 3. The OIC’s Human Rights Regime 65
Turan Kayaoglu
PART II. INTERVENTIONS: RIGHTS AND VALUES
Chapter 4. The OIC’s Human Rights Policies in the UN:
A Prob lem of Coherence 91
Ann Elizabeth Mayer
Chapter 5. The OIC and Freedom of Expression:
Justifying Religious Censorship Norms with Human Rights Language 114
Heini í Skorini
vi Contents
Chapter 6. Competing Perceptions: Traditional
Values and Human Rights 142
Moataz El Fegiery
Chapter 7. The Position of the OIC on Abortion:
Not Too Bad, Ugly, or Just Confusing? 166
Ioana Cismas
Chapter 8. The OIC and C hildren’s Rights 198
Mahmood Monshipouri and Turan Kayaoglu
PART III. INTERSECTIONS: CONFLICTS AND COOPERATION
Chapter 9. The OIC and Conflict Resolution:
Norms and Practical Challenges 219
Hirah Azhar
Chapter 10. Fragmented Aid: The Institutionalization of the
OIC’s Foreign Aid Framework 245
Martin Lestra and M. Evren Tok
Chapter 11. Governance of Refugees in the OIC 270
Zeynep Şahin Mencütek
Chapter 12. The OIC and Civil Society Cooperation:
Prospects for Strengthened Human Rights Involvement? 289
Marie Juul Petersen
Contributors 311
Index 315
Acknowl edgments 331
The Organ ization
of Islamic Cooperation
and H uman Rights
This page intentionally left blank
Introduction
Marie Juul Petersen and Turan Kayaoglu
“The United Nations of the Muslim world” is how the Organ ization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC) often refers to itself. The OIC is an intergovernmental
organ ization, established in 1969 with the purpose of strengthening solidar-
ity among Muslims. Headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the OIC today
consists of fifty- seven states from the M iddle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin
Amer i ca. The OIC’s longevity and geographic reach, combined with its self-
proclaimed role as the UN of the Muslim world, raise certain expectations
as to its role in global human rights politics. However, to date these hopes
have been unfulfilled. This volume sets out to demonstrate, by way of vari-
ous methods of analy sis, the potential and the shortcomings of the OIC and
the obstacles (sometimes set by OIC members themselves) on the paths this
group has navigated.
Historically, the OIC has had a complicated and conflict- ridden relation-
ship with the international h uman rights regime and with the concept of
universal human rights. Palestinian self- determination— a po liti cal prob lem
with a strong human rights dimension— was an impor tant catalyst for the
founding of the OIC in 1969. Nonetheless, the OIC did not develop a com-
prehensive human rights approach in its first de cades. In fact, h uman rights
issues were rarely, if at all, mentioned at the organ ization’s summits or the
annual conferences of foreign ministers. Instead, the OIC tended to focus on
protecting Islamic holy sites and increasing economic cooperation among
member states.
As other international and regional organ izations expanded and strength-
ened the international human rights system in the 1990s, the OIC began to
2 Marie Juul Petersen and Turan Kayaoglu
pay greater attention to human rights, although not always in a way that
aligned with Western states’ conceptions of h uman rights. In par tic u lar, two
initiatives came to shape the organ ization’s human rights agenda and its (re-
actionary) h uman rights image in the eyes of the West throughout the 1990s.
First, in 1990, the OIC introduced the Cairo Declaration on Human
Rights in Islam, which presented a set of religiously defined human rights.
The OIC often argued that the declaration was complementary, not a substi-
tute or alternative, to the Universal Declaration on H uman Rights (UDHR)
and true to Islamic princi ples. At the same time h uman rights activists and
Western states widely denounced the declaration. Th ese detractors argued that
subjugating h uman rights to religious limitations, as promoted in the Cairo
Declaration, conflicted with essential princi ples of the UDHR, including the
core princi ples of equality and nondiscrimination, thus undermining it.
Second, in 1999, the OIC introduced the first of a series of UN resolu-
tions to the H uman Rights Commission, asking governments to combat “def-
amation of religions” by limiting freedom of expression and criminalizing
defamatory statements. According to the OIC, this was a much- needed step
in the fight against rising Islamophobia in the West. Specifically, the OIC
claimed that the defamation of Islam often led to anti- Muslim discrimina-
tion. Western states considered the resolutions contrary to freedom of expres-
sion and saw such efforts as an attempt to universalize anti- blasphemy
laws. Coupled with harsh h uman rights violations in many OIC member
states and the OIC’s unwillingness to address t hese violations e ither through
its own protocols or as a participant in international h uman rights proceed-
ings, the OIC gained a reputation as a spoiler organ ization in the interna-
tional human rights system.
The mid-2000s saw the OIC engaging with international human rights
in a slightly more constructive manner. Internally, as part of a larger reform
of the OIC, its Ten Year Program of Action (TYPOA) was published in 2005,
introducing an explicit focus on universal h uman rights and highlighting the
importance of incorporating h uman rights concerns into all programs and
activities. Notably, the plan also stressed “the responsibility of the interna-
tional community, including all governments, to ensure re spect for all reli-
gions and combat their defamation.” The new approach was most clearly
manifested in the 2011 establishment of an OIC human rights mechanism,
the In de pen dent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC). The
IPHRC was charged with supporting member states in their implementation
of international h uman rights obligations.
