Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 14/02/2012
Doha, February 12-14, 2012 Honourable Minister, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my honour and pleasure to applaud the brotherly State of Qatar for hosting the 3rd NAM Ministerial Conference on Advancement of Women, in the beautiful capital city of Doha and for Chairing this Meeting. I wouls also like to congratulate Egypt for its successful leadership and stewardship as Chair of the Non Aligned Movement. I would have deemed it a privilege to be present at this august meeting personally. Regrettably, due to some prior commitments I am not able to do so. I would however like to have the honour to convey my sincere and warm greetings and salutations to the distinguished Heads of Delegation and the participants as well as to express my confidence of the overwhelming success of this august Meeting. The 2nd NAM Ministerial Session on the Advancement of Women held in Guatemala in 2009, took some landmark decisions on the cause of women and their overall development. Over the past three years, substantive progress has been made in the implementation process. The Doha Meeting would be expected to take stock of the developments made and provide a new set of directions to fulfil the outstanding objectives. The issue of the promotion of the status of women and their advancement is a priority in the OIC agenda. The organization has been mandated by the Heads of State/Government in the OIC Ten Year Plan of Action adopted in 2005 to fulfil this objective and we are actively pursuing the implementation of the decisions therein. The cause of advancement of women in the OIC and the challenges faced in the way of moving ahead are not very different from what has come out from the NAM Ministerial Meetings on Women. Women are an important segment of our societies and have all the potential of being effective partners of men in social, economic and political life. Their advancement in all the areas is therefore imperative to achieve sustainable and balanced development, and to bring progress and prosperity in society. The challenges in the task still remain formidable. Critical issues such as violence against women, poverty among women, lack of equal and sufficient access to basic human rights including those related to quality education, health care and nutrition, recreation, decision making should be addressed on priority basis. The OIC is gravely concerned and alarmed of the plight of Palestinian women who are victims under Israeli occupation. The OIC fully shares the concerns expressed in the Guatemala NAM Declaration of 2009 and we hope that Doha Meeting will be able to come up with some concrete recommendations that will address their lingering sufferings without any further delay. Since the adoption of the OIC Ten Year Programme of Action in 2005, the OIC has convened three Ministerial Meeting on Women, in Istanbul in 2006, Cairo in 2008 and Tehran in 2010. The deliberations in these three conferences concentrated wholly on the way to empower the Muslim women to play a constructive and productive role in the development of the society and in the decision making process, including those in the government and in business. The most tangible and outstanding outcome of the deliberations was the adoption of the OIC Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women (OPAAW), which serves as a roadmap for the OIC Member States to realize women development. To facilitate the realization of the OPAAW, a mechanism for the Implementation of OPAAW was also adopted through which we seek to implement the provisions of the OPAAW in coordination with the OIC Member States. The Fourth OIC Women’s Ministerial Meeting is scheduled to take place this year in Indonesia. We believe that this Meeting will be another major step forward in the cause of Advancement of Women by taking concrete decisions in facing up to the challenges. Following the adoption of OPAAW, OIC Women Development Organization, a specialized institution to deal with women development in the OIC Member States was established in Cairo, Egypt. The newly established Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission in the OIC will also give a strong support to the cause of women and the protection of their rights. Let me conclude by expressing my firm conviction that the OIC and its Member States almost all of which are also members of Non Aligned Movement, would be active in lending strong support and cooperation to ensure that the targets and goals set forth in the Doha Declaration are achieved within shortest possible time. I thank you.
