Law: Organization of Islamic Cooperation

Introduction

With a total of fifty-seven member countries scattered across the world and a number tally of approximately over one billion individuals, the Organization for Islamic Cooperation. (OIC) has been considered one of the top intergovernmental organs, as well as a follower of the UN. Despite a considerable composition, this same body is among the less researched global bodies. Due to this, this essay tries to give brief literature of this body, like its background, framework, and principles, including its difficulties and preferences.

Brief History

This same Islamic organization is identifying itself to be a “unified convey of said Islam world,” as well as push to defend as well as promote all desires of each member country. This same corporation’s talks of it as a delegate in said Islamic states. The practice leads people to believe also that OIC was formed as a result of Muslim building and sustaining a cooperative establishment for combined Islamic activity as well as togetherness.

Its deep belief throughout connectedness towards the Muslim Ummah, an Arabic allusion toward the cohesive Muslim community globally, has been among the bonds which already cultivated a feeling of solidarity in the Muslims. The feeling of about towards the Ummah has already helped Islamic people to reside in some of the Muslim empires for not less than 1300 years. Most recently in of these is the Ottoman Empire, which also controlled the Islamic world for 400 years only it collapsed in 1924.

However, the Parliament of Turkey’s elimination of the Empire of the Ottomans back in the year 1924 also existed at quite a crucial juncture. During this period, many Islamic states were still under European colonial domination, invented different complexities for efforts to find a modified version of encompassing Islamic authority. Fully cognizant of said innovative geopolitical realities introduced by World War I’s end, Muslim intellectuals, as well as world leaders openly discussed how and where to develop a sophisticated empire on this said after war Islamic world. Claims that “a diverse array of Muslim elites and advocates, such as own peers, inventively involved that challenge presented for after war epoch. They strove to devise an Islamic globalism that symbolized prominently advanced intonations of deep-seated religious sentiments.”

All across the Muslim world, attempts to develop a globalized Islamic political culture kept going. As a result, a few other Muslim meetings have always been held mostly during the interwar period, with Islamic togetherness being a central element. Called for the abolition of the Empire, a few influential Muslim scholars started calling for an Islamic meeting that was held in Cairo, where it showed its encouragement for all.

A quest for something like the functional structure of Muslim governance influenced Mustafa of Turkey, who had been one of those in the abolishment of that Empire. Mustafa suggested of even though liberation occurred, Islamic states come together by sending delegator kind of a forum as well as forming a transnational corporation’s body for closer integration. He as well mentioned that perhaps the envisioned international body can be the Caliphate, which would be presided over by a Caliph.

Establishment of the OIC

Even though the previously stated efforts to unite Muslims had been infrequent as well as inconsistent, they led the formation of the organization back in the year, 1969, also afterward has become cooperation instead of a conference as before. This same Islamic organization’s primary endpoint, on either hand, was an attack upon this Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupancy of East Jerusalem. A Jewish enthusiast set fire on that Mosque, one of the biggest Muslim holy sites, on August 21, 1969, causing extensive damage. This same arson attack sparked outrage all through the Islamic states. That very day, Jerusalem’s Islamic jury-consultation contacted heads of government, wrote a request that a quick planned Summit be convened to address that situation.

Amidst this same request of the Islamic jury-consultation, Hassan the second of the Moroccan kingdom convened an urgent conference of Muslim heads of government in Rabat. The very first summit was organized in the kingdom’s headquarters that same year only as a consequence of the increased diplomacy through Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Despite the doubt as well as barrier properties from certain nations, delegates from twenty-four nations reacted favorably and participated in the conference. This very summit laid a firm groundwork for the formation and the start of this Islamic organization. Furthermore, the opening meeting was for the state’s ministers of foreign affairs and held in 1970 in the headquarters of an Arabian country in Jeddah. They settled to set up a rigid committee of secretaries led by that same organization’s secretary-general.

It must be acknowledged that, instead of Islam, the national interests of the constituent had become a core concern inside this Organization’s work. Strategic interests clarify, to a certain degree, why so many nations decided to join this same OIC in the first spot, even though those don’t even have Muslim majorities. Whereas non-Arab Muslims make up the vast majority of the OIC’s affiliation, African and Arab constituent nations make up a sizable vast bulk of the OIC’s fifty-seven member nations. As a result, the OIC is a group that reflects the political and economic diversification from less industrialized nations.

Goals and Principles

After the formation, the Organization of Islamic cooperation did set their goals to achieve such as:

• To strengthen and unite the Member States’ fraternal and solidarity bonds.
• To protect all mutual interests as well as genuine causes of member countries as well as assisting the reconstruction of full territorial integrity to every member country under occupation. This was as a result of aggressive behavior, here on basis of general legislation and teamwork with pertinent international bodies.
• To assist the Palestinian people in exercising their right to personal and trying to establish a political entity with Jewish settlements as its capital while preserving the historical and architectural of Islamic community.
• To improve interpersonal and inter-economic and trade partners to increase economic incorporation as well as instituting such a Trading Bloc.
• Sovereign states must synthesize efforts to achieve lengthy as well as extensive sentient growth and sustainable well-being.
• Help support as well as protect Muslim’s visual meaning, to battle slander of Islam, and also to promote discussion between human civilizations and religious faiths.

For efficiency in doing its work, they come up with their organization’s principles which were:

• Those individual countries pledge allegiance towards the values and objectives enshrined in the Universal Declaration.
• Individual countries are self-governing, self-sufficient, and have equivalent duties and liabilities.
• All national governments must end up settling their disputes peacefully and desist from using or threatening to use power in their interactions.
• Those member countries agree to honor other individual countries’ sovereign rights, self-rule, and territorial integrity, and to desist from trying to interfere with domestic matters of individual countries.
• Countries commit by contributing to the upkeep of security and refraining from meddling in everyone’s internal matters. This is engrained in the current Charter, the United Nations Charter, international norms, and international human rights law.
• At the international level, States Parties must affirm and enhance accountability, justice, global laws and regulations, and the legal system.

Functions and tasks of OIC

• Guarantee Islamic cohesion within and between nations, partnership in governmental, industrial, interpersonal, intellectual, and areas of science.
• To help in the strive among all Muslims to preserve their honor, independence, as well as democratic rights
• Help the Muslims to protect their Holy Places.
• Help the Palestinian recover quickly about their legal protections and liberate their indigenous land by supporting their hardships.
• Completely eradicate racial segregation as well as all aspects of imperialism, and foster an environment conducive to the advancement of, along with other things.

OIC Membership

The topic of affiliation has only been tangentially addressed in OIC’s first Charter. This asserted that “each Muslim State becomes qualified to join this same Islamic Summit upon submitting an application trying to express the latter’s willingness and readiness to embrace the said Agreement”. The request will be deposited only with General Secretariat as well as presented to the Foreign Ministers’ Summit at the very first meeting following its submittal. The affiliation will take full effect when the Summit is approved by a two-thirds unanimous vote.

The restated Charter aggravated the problem for nations to join the Islamic Organization by imposing a slew of changed regulations. It also emphasized on the section of the current law which will affect the current nations’ additional privileges about affiliation and indeed any concerns. This specified that every nation wanting to enter the OIC must be a signatory to the UN, do have its majority population as Islam’s, comply in its laws, as well as give out the form to be affiliated. Affiliation, nevertheless, is not automatic because it should be agreed by the majority view of the Council of Foreign Ministers. The consensus among 57 nations, on the other hand, is indeed difficult.

OIC Structure

Even though OIC had been founded as just a political relation to political advancements, the latter’s extent of involvement has since augmented to provide a broad range of areas. This indicates the desires of its own states’ parties in industrial, interpersonal, intellectual, and philanthropic realms. The same corporate structure of the OIC, combined Islamic activity and coexistence between its national governments across all domains, takes into account the areas of focus, priorities, and anxieties of all its member nations.

The Islamic Summit

It is important to note that the Islamic Summit has been OIC’s top authority. Per the organization Charter, the conference is held to explain the most critical things going against this same Islamic world as well as to establish policies. It holds meetings every 3 years, but the Fourth Chapter of the Charter says that unprecedented meetings of Islamic Summit meetings may be managed to hold when any preferences of the Ummah justifies. This takes into account issues of crucial significance towards the Ummah as well as organizes the Organization. There have also been 13 consistent OIC Diplomatic meetings, the most recent of which occurred in Istanbul back in 2016.

Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM)

This seems to be OIC’s real judgmental structure, as well as its opinions are based on laws set by Summit Meetings. The CFM is required by Chapter V of the Declaration to contact yearly in quite a normal meeting. However, it can meet during an unprecedented meeting just at a proposal like any individual country or the Secretary-General of the OIC. It stipulated that this proposal is accepted by a simple majority of said individual countries. Since it’s the main decision-making structure of the organization, it meets to:

• Contemplate Ways to put the committee’s global strategy into action.
• Examine advancement in implementing rulings passed at previous meetings.
• Embrace agreements on matters of mutual interest through full compliance with the Conference’s performance targets in the Charter.
• Contemplate as well as accept the General Secretariat’s & Subsidiary Organs’ scheme, expenditure, as well as other operational and management analyses.
• Assess whatever condition that influences several of the signatories.
• The Sec-Gen is elected, as well as Associate Sec-Gens are appointed by this body.

Executive Committee

For nearly 40 years, OIC decisions are made at OIC Roundtables as well as CFM conferences, which also meet every 3 years and each year, respectively. Nevertheless, inability to answer to arising challenges affecting this same Ummah, this same OIC established the committee of heads of states to stand as a stance system that can hold meetings on small durations. This same Executive Committee is built by nations that presides the current, prior and having success Islamic Gatherings as well as ministers’ meetings, and the nation holding the position of the secretary-general main offices and the Sec-Gen as just an ex officio individual. Regardless of its structure, this same Executive Committee holds meetings in a wide genre to permit most OIC members to participate through its discussions. It has met 18 times since it started in 2006.

Standing Committees

For this Islamic organization’s cooperation to be affecting and to cater to all the members it created committees led by heads of state. They are as follows:

• Morocco’s Lord chairs the Joint task Council (Review panel on Jerusalem), which is domiciled in Rabat.
• The collegium on Info as well as Fine Arts that Senegal’s Head of state chairs the group, which is rooted in Dakar.
• The Executive of Turkey chairs the Review Panel for Regional Development as well as Marketing Partnership, which is centered in Ankara.
• The Collegium for Science – Technical Coexistence, focused in Islamabad, is chaired by Pakistan’s President.

OIC Organs

OIC, simulated after the United Nations, established a few divisional organ systems as well as specialized institutions to carry out the Organization’s aims. Furthermore, this same OIC acknowledged a few associated and non-governmental institutions underneath its framework.

The General Secretary’s Office

This OIC’s organ was formed on the very first Ministerial Conference, and has it is headquarters in the Middle East. Therefore, is tasked, along with many things, by providing services for signatory dialogue, information exchange, as well as execution of the OIC judgment body system’ decisions. The organ is led by a Sec-Gen appointed in ministerial meetings and serves a 5-years term that can be renewed one time. The Secretary-General must become a nation of such an OIC Individual Country. Mostly in OIC, the position is shuffled among distinct regions clusters (Arab, Asian and African). Up to this point, eleven people have served as the OIC’s General Secretariat. Yousef Al-Othaimeen, a Saudi national, is the current Secretary-General, having taken office in 2016.

Subsidiary Organs

This same OIC defined six conglomerate entities to promote collaboration among the Organization’s individual countries in the areas of the conglomerate organs’ jurisdiction. The above organs have been entirely funded by the OIC and thus are overseen by the OIC General Secretariat. Such organs will instantaneously become affiliates of the individual countries. Islamic States’ Predictive, Socio-Training as well as Research Hub; Islamic Heritage, Art, as well as Sociocultural National Institute; Islamic Universities; Islamic Hub for Economic Growth; The International Islamic Laws Institute; and the Islamic Cohesion Budget as well as its Warf seem to be two of the conglomerate body systems.

Affiliated Institutions

Affiliation within these entities has been accessible to institutions from OIC individual countries, as well as conclusions again from the Council of Foreign Ministers might very well confer their associate membership. With exception of subsidiary organs, affiliated institutions’ expenditures are separate from the Secretariat General’s finances.

Specialized Institutions

Specialty organizations have been created in response to decisions taken by the summits. In addition, the Ministerial meetings Specialty bodies’ funding levels are separate from the OIC Secretariat General’s finances and must be authorized by their specific institutions. The OIC houses various multiple specialized institutions, including the I Financial institution for Islamic Progress, the Islamic Institute, Research-based, as well as Social Institution, the Islamic Communications Association, and others.

The organization bank and the organ of research, education, and culture become the two and among the most important of the entities cited in the previous section. The following is a synopsis of these two organizations.

The Organization Bank on the Development

This Islamic organization’s bank, founded in 1973 as well as currently based in the Asia continent, is primarily OIC’s budgetary branch in promoting member countries’ socioeconomic development advancement. The bank also provides federal aid to countries involved in productive projects and businesses. This same IDB does have its systems of governance, with countries involved sending delegates to that same Board of Governors. The permitted value of the investment does seem to be 6-billion dinars. This dinar is worth another unique illustration of the freedom of global funds. 1 dinar is equal to 1.3 US dollars.

Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO)

ISESCO was founded in the 20^th century and has been headquarters is located in Rabat, Morocco. Its measures are related to that of UNESCO though on a lesser level. Its goal is to strengthen, encourage, as well as centralize collaboration between many OIC individual countries in academic achievement, technology, civilization, as well as interaction, and to establish and improve the above areas. Furthermore, ISESCO intends to promote the right version of Islam and Islamic customs, encourage conversation between ancient cultures, traditions, and faiths, and operate to disperse these same values of peace and justice. Besides, there exist basic fundamentals of liberty and freedom, in accordance with the Islamic hegemonic viewpoint.

Intergovernmental Relations and Partnerships

The organization is now among the world’s massive international bodies. OIC bears definite obligations like an international player owing to the excessive support base it reflects (57 jurisdictions with a cohort of 1.5 billion) as well as the wide variety of subjects and induces it fosters. The OIC has established a broad lateral site of connections to member nations inside this structure.

Similarly, the OIC has established formalized interactions as well as alliances with independent non-OIC nations. Erstwhile US Executive chairman George W. Bush, for instance, was put in a diplomat in that same OIC. Cooperation of both sides grew with time, as well as the United States created connections with this same international body, states’ departmental organs in sectors like countering illnesses in Africa and trying to counter radicalization. However, ever since the entry of the present US government, connections with the OIC have deteriorated significantly. Just like the thread of US agencies towards the organizations is not clogged, the government-to-government discussions also stopped to take place.

Conclusion

It is now clear that Islamic organization was founded in the 20^th century only with a specific aim upon the strategy but evolved together into a vast international body with an expansive initiative. The body was greatly challenged by a myriad of challenges varying from stability, poverty eradication, disease and terrorism activities. This is a corporation that is now regarded as a mate to the well intergovernmental organizations like the United Nations as well as the EU. Nonetheless, this same OIC wants to revise a few of its operating procedures, methodologies, as well as systems to be a much more effective combination which can mean leaving a better world and having a greater voice in geopolitics fully consistent with the magnitude of its affiliation.

Enhancing the OIC’s tasks and effectiveness, on either hand, proves difficult in the absence of legitimate and sturdy help from its member countries. Thus, it is imperative for OIC associates to motivate the Organization as well as assist it to be a much more efficient mechanism in bolstering teamwork as well as progressing collective operation amongst individual countries.

References

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Kamla, R., & Haque, F. (2019). Islamic accounting, neo-imperialism and identity staging: The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 63, 102000.

Mayer, A. E. (2018). Islam and human rights: Tradition and politics. Routledge.