Jeddah
Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic cooperation (OIC) Dr. Yousef A. Al-Othaimeen, joinsthe international community in commemoratingthe Human Rights Day.
As the world faces unprecedented challenges resulting from COVID-19 pandemic, the Secretary General callupon OIC Member States and other stakeholders to continue honouring their obligations and commitments and adopt human rights-based approachesliable to ensureinclusion, accountability, non-discrimination, equality and equity consistent with universal human rights values and standards. States must ensure that restrictions on fundamental freedoms must be nondiscriminatory proportionate and considerate and must be subject to review by the competent legal authorities.
The post pandemic world has caused glaring inequalities, discrimination and abuse of human rights. It is appalling that human rights violations continue to disproportionately affect millions of Muslims across the world including women and children, especially females, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people. These vulnerable peopleare increasingly exposed to the fatalities of the pandemic due to lack of resources, hostilities and discrimination.
In the wake of these grave human rights challenges, the world needs to revive the shared values of freedom, justice, and equality.The scale and coverage of the response, especially during roll out of the much-awaited vaccine or other therapeutic regimes, would test the bonds of human solidarity and collective responsibility. States must ensure that protection and fulfillment of human rights and fundamental freedoms should remain at the center of all prevention, containment and therapeutic efforts to ensure human dignity, non-discrimination and wellbeing of all individuals, especially the vulnerable and marginalized segments of human society.
The world needs to join hands to counter the rising trends of Islamophobia, which is emerging as a manifestation of racism and discrimination. In this respect, the OIC considers the defamatory caricatures of the Prophet of Islam asa stark abuse of the freedom of expression and is tantamountto discrimination and intolerance.
There is, thus, an urgent need for the engagement of global political and religious leadership to initiate a comprehensive inter-civilizational dialogue to eliminate ‘double standards’, bridge the socio-cultural and religious misperceptions and develop better understanding of each other’s sensitivities.
OIC is willing to cooperate and collaborate, including through the effective implementation of UN HRC Resolution 16/18, which aims at rooting out hate speech.
Human rights issues have gained traction and increased importance within the OIC ever since the adoption of its Ten-Year Program of Action in 2005 and its revised Charter in 2008.
