OIC to Discuss Rights Body Formation
Civil society organizations in member states and Muslim minorities in nonmember states will participate in the meeting.
This move confirms the interest of the OIC in civil society institutions and the need for forging closer relations between them. The meeting comes in the wake of a decision made by the OIC's Council of Foreign Ministers, which was held in the Guinean capital Conakry in December 2013, to grant consultative status to nongovernmental humanitarian organizations.
The meeting will also address the situation in the Central African Republic and the Sahel region of Africa.
Iyad Madani, OIC secretary-general, has welcomed the Palestinian leadership's decision to sign letters of accession to 15 international organizations, treaties and conventions and considered this decision a remarkable step that has the support of the OIC.
Madani drew the attention of the OIC member states' representatives in New York and Geneva to the need for mobilizing support for this decision, emphasizing that Palestine is entitled to such a right following recognition by the UN General Assembly and that it would ensure more support to the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. He condemned Israel's decision to approve the construction of 708 new settlement units in occupied Jerusalem.
He said that the decision to proceed with the construction of settlements and Israel's refusal to release the fourth group of Palestinian prisoners demonstrate Israel's insistence on continuing to defy the will of the international community and international legitimacy resolutions.
Source: Zawya
