Established in 1969, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is an intergovernmental organization the purpose of which is the strengthening of solidarity among Muslims. Headquartered in Jeddah, the OIC today consists of fifty seven states from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The OIC's longevity and geographic reach, combined with its self-proclaimed role as the United Nations of the Muslim world, raise certain expectations as to its role in global human rights politics. However, to date, these hopes have been unfulfilled. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Human Rights sets out to demonstrate the potential and shortcomings of the OIC and the obstacles on the paths it has navigated. Historically, the OIC has had a complicated relationship with the international human rights regime. Palestinian self-determination was an important catalyst for the founding of the OIC, but the OIC did not develop a comprehensive human rights approach in its first decades. In fact, human rights issues were rarely, if at all, mentioned at the organization's summits or annual conferences of foreign ministers. Instead, the OIC tended to focus on protecting Islamic holy sites and strengthening economic cooperation among member states. As other international and regional organizations expanded the international human rights system in the 1990s, the OIC began to pay greater attention to human rights, although not always in a manner that aligned with Western conceptions. This volume provides essential empirical and theoretical insights into OIC practices, contemporary challenges to human rights, intergovernmental organizations, and global Islam. Essays by some of the world's leading scholars examine the OIC's human rights activities at different levels—in the UN, the organization's own institutions, and at the member-state level—and assess different aspects of the OIC's approach, identifying priority areas of involvement and underlying conceptions of human rights. Contributors: Hirah Azhar, Mashood A. Baderin, Anthony Tirado Chase, Ioana Cismas, Moataz El Fegiery, Turan Kayaoglu, Martin Lestra, Ann Elizabeth Mayer, Mahmood Monshipouri, Marie Juul Petersen, Zeynep Şahin-Mencütek, Heiní Skorini, M. Evren Tok.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the world’s leading international Islamic organization. Turan Kayaoglu provides the first accessible and concise introduction and overview of this important organization. This book details the OIC’s struggle to address popular Muslim demands balanced against the member states’ reluctance to support the OIC politically and materially. Despite this predicament, the organization has made itself increasingly relevant over the last decade through increasing its visibility as the representative body of Muslim unity and promoting its role as a reliable interlocutor on behalf of Muslims in global society. Outlining the history, workings and goals of the OIC, the book also highlights key issues that may influence the OIC’s ability to realize its potential in the future. This will be of great interest to students and scholars of international relations, international organizations and islamic studies.

Islam and Human Rights is a probing examination of how the Islamic tradition has been exploited for political ends by regimes and institutions seeking to legitimize policies inimical to human rights. Ann Elizabeth Mayer critically appraises Islamic human rights schemes that dilute the human rights afforded by international law, comparing them with the complex Islamic legal heritage and international human rights law. Challenging stereotypes about a supposedly monolithic Islam inherently incompatible with human rights, Mayer dissects the political motives behind the selective deployment of elements of the Islamic tradition by conservative forces seeking to delegitimize demands for democracy and human rights. The fifth edition provides an updated consideration of government policies on Islam and human rights activism and how they are affecting developments in several Middle Eastern countries, and features a new chapter on the resistance of human rights for sexual minorities by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) project to co-opt international human rights law to criminalize 'defamation of Islam' occurring in the West. The new edition also analyzes the other most recent and important issues of the region, including: The burgeoning pressures in the Middle East for human rights leading up to the Arab Spring; The ambitious campaign of the (OIC) to influence the UN human rights system by forging alliances with non-Muslim states hostile to human rights; The concerted efforts by this cross-cultural alliance to subvert international human rights law under pretenses of supporting human rights; The intensifying controversies over issues of sexual orientation and gender identity in the Middle East; The Danish Cartoons controversy and the OIC project to co-opt international human rights law to criminalize 'defamation of Islam' occurring in the West.

In June 2011 the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation established the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission, with the objective to "advance human rights" and "support the Member States' efforts to consolidate civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights". This report provides an introduction to the new human rights commission, presenting the background to its establishment, its objectives, activities and experts, as well as its relation to the international human rights community and its conception of human rights. The report concludes by discussing some of the potentially problematic aspects of the Commission, as well as some of its strengths, seen from a Danish perspective.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is uniquely well placed to advance human rights in the Muslim world, but has repeatedly failed to fulfill that potential. Under the reformist leadership of Ekmelledin Ihsanoğlu, can the organization's rights agenda move beyond traditional obstacles, namely members' focus on state sovereignty and the debate over the role of sharia? Could the recently established Independent Permanent Commission on Human Rights (IPCHR) form the basis of a robust international human rights regime for the Muslim world? In this paper Turan Kayaoğlu discusses how the OIC can become a more effective proponent of human rights. The paper describes the changing approach and tenor of the OIC's rights policy. Based on extensive interviews with senior OIC officials, the paper takes a close look at the organization's various human rights instruments and notes a shift in its approach. Recent mechanisms, most importantly the IPHRC, have dropped a former emphasis on the centrality of sharia. The OIC's traditional understanding of state sovereignty, however, has remained intact and led to important shortcomings in the new body. This paper demonstrates how the IPHRC can nevertheless grow into an effective promoter of human rights, and offers recommendations on how the international human rights community can assist in that process.

The Cairo Declaration was a product of the late 1980s and early ’90s. the ODHR is a non-binding document whose value is mostly symbolic. However, it is worth discussing for four reasons. Firstly, the evolution of the Cairo Declaration provides a useful lens to understand human rights debates, intellectual currents, and political changes in the Muslim world. Secondly, non-binding human rights declarations often become binding conventions and treaties. This was the case with the UDHR, which informed the ICCPR and ICESCR. Moreover, non-binding declarations may also create norms. In this case, by championing some ideas over others and mobilizing civil society organizations (CSOs), the ODHR will define acceptable human rights behavior. Finally, the OIC is a significant actor in international diplomacy and has been active on issues such as freedom of speech, hate speech, family values, and sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) rights in the halls of the U.N. in New York and Geneva. The ODHR articulates the organization’s vision of universal freedoms and helps us to understand emerging fault lines in the global politics of human rights.

In this pioneering work Siraj Sait and Hilary Lim address Islamic property and land rights, drawing on a range of socio-historical, classical and contemporary resources. They address the significance of Islamic theories of property and Islamic land tenure regimes on the 'webs of tenure' prevalent in the Muslim societies. They consider the possibility of using Islamic legal and human rights systems for the development of inclusive, pro-poor approaches to land rights. They also focus on Muslim women's rights to property and inheritance systems. Engaging with institutions such as the Islamic endowment (waqf) and principles of Islamic microfinance, they test the workability of 'authentic' Islamic proposals. Located in human rights as well as Islamic debates, this study offers a well researched and constructive appraisal of property and land rights in the Muslim world.

The report presents available data on discrimination affecting Muslims in employment, education and housing. Manifestations of Islamophobia range from verbal threats through to physical attacks on people and property. The report stresses that the extent and nature of discrimination and Islamophobic incidents against European Muslims remain under-documented and under-reported.