Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 29/10/2023
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) convened, at its headquarters in Jeddah, the third open-ended Intergovernmental Group of Experts Meeting to finalize the discussion of the draft OIC Convention on the Rights of the Child. This important discussion took place against the backdrop of escalation and deterioration of the security and humanitarian conditions and the continuing brutal aggression perpetrated by the Israeli occupation army against innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Ambassador Tariq Ali Bakhit, OIC Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian, Cultural, and Social Affairs, said that the meeting is being held on 29-30 October 2023, under difficult and harsh circumstances due to the blatant and unprecedented Israeli aggression in the occupied Palestinian territories and the heinous massacres committed against civilians in the Gaza Strip, which led to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians and the injury of thousands, most of them children, women and the elderly.
In light of these dire circumstances, the OIC Assistant Secretary-General called for the necessity of finalizing the review of the document and its implementation mechanisms in order to submit it to the next session of the Council of Foreign Ministers meeting for approval before initiating its implementation.
Ambassador Bakhit highlighted that the tolerant Islamic religion paid great attention to the rights of children, considering that they are the future of the Ummah and the youth of tomorrow. As a result, Islam has established comprehensive rights for children that cover all the different stages of their lives. Ambassador Bakhit expressed that, the OIC Member States pay great attention to the rights of the child and look forward to the adoption of the OIC Convention on the Rights of the Child document as an international charter that is equal to other international human rights instruments, consistent with the teachings of Islam.
In his statement, Ambassador Bakhit thanked the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the Chair of the 49th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers, and the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Chair of the Second Session of the Ministerial Conference on Social Development, for their efforts and continued support for the General Secretariat in order to follow up on the implementation of the OIC resolutions in this field.
