Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 02/07/2016
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) strongly rejected the resolution on “protection against discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity” adopted during the recently concluded 32nd Session of the Human Rights Council. While reaffirming OIC’s strong commitment to combating all forms of violence and discrimination against any person or group on any ground, the OIC Secretary General, Iyad Ameen Madani reiterated OIC’s firm stance that the notion of sexual orientation is alien to the international human rights norms and standards as well as against the fundamental precepts of not only Islamic but many other religious and cultural societies.
Pushing and adoption of this resolution, particularly the establishment of an independent expert to promote and protect this topic, amounts to imposing one set of values and preferences on the rest of the world and counteracts the fundamentals of universal human rights that call for respecting diversity, national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds; as clearly set out in various international human rights instruments, he added.
Mr. Madani appreciated the good work done by the OIC Ambassadorial Group in Geneva that took lead in spearheading the opposition against this resolution and aptly explained the non-relevance of this subject to the international human rights discourse during its presentation. Views of the OIC Member States were supported by a number of non OIC countries from Asia, Africa and Europe, which led to some key amendments being included in this resolution that call for importance of respecting the national, regional and religious particularities, avoiding external pressures or coercive measures to avoid influencing views of developing countries and the need for implementing the resolution in accordance with national laws and in conformity with universally recognized international human rights law.
Mr. Madani urged UN Member States to avoid introducing such concepts and notions in the UN that have no legal foundation in international human rights law and directly impinge on the socio-cultural and religious sensitivities of a large group of UN countries. He warned that such moves would only lead to further polarization of the human rights council and seriously undermine its important work that strives to build the international human rights edifice in a cooperative and consensual manner.
It may be recalled that the 42nd Session of OIC Council of Foreign Ministers held in Kuwait on 27-28 May 2015, had unanimously disagreed and clearly rejected the earlier HRC Resolution on the subject of “human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity”.
