The 45th annual meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has rightly expressed deep concern over the systemic brutal acts perpetrated by Myanmar security forces against their Rohingya Muslim citizens, forcing them to flee from their homeland, mainly to Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government has also deservingly been commended for providing shelter to these displaced people. The OIC CFM has called for international support for full implementation of the recommendations of Annan Commission for restoring the rights of the Rohingya population in Myanmar. The Dhaka Declaration, adopted by the OIC Foreign Ministers, has reaffirmed full solidarity with Bangladesh in the face of huge Rohingya influx due to state-backed violence in Myanmar.
In this context, the Dhaka Declaration has urged the member-states of the organisation to provide more humanitarian aid to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. It has called upon the member-states to remain engaged with the international community for addressing massive human rights violations against the Rohingyas. However, the Declaration has not mentioned any specific or binding measures or figures for alleviating the huge burden - financial, humanitarian and environmental, that Bangladesh is currently carrying due to the crisis. The only concrete move that has been agreed upon at the Dhaka meeting, is the formation of an ad-hoc ministerial committee to be headed by Gambia for addressing the "Accountability issue for the violation of human rights against the Rohingya in Myanmar". Thus, the proceedings of the just-concluded 45th annual meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of OIC have largely been rhetorical. Short of substantive actions, the OIC will hardly be in a position to help bolster the cause of the Islamic Ummah.
The Dhaka Declaration recognises the centrality of the OIC as a platform to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation between the member-states in all important areas, while reaffirming its commitment to "promote the bonds of unity and solidarity". It's worth recounting here that the OIC-2025 Programme of Action contains many commendable goals as well as specific programmes and activities for implementing those. The programme does cover almost all areas - social, economic, cultural, human development and administrative. The OIC has not, though, been quite successful so far in carrying these forward mainly due to its institutional weaknesses. Sweeping institutional reforms of the body is therefore urgently needed in order to reinvent and reform the organisation and make it more relevant to the global podium as it reaches the milestone of its Golden Jubilee next year.
All concerned would now expect that relevant parties would take due note of the emphasis the council has given on peaceful resolution of conflicts among the OIC member-states. None also should miss the appeal made in the Declaration to disseminate knowledge about 'enlightened Islam' to combat terrorism, violent extremism and religious fanaticism. The Declaration, however, expresses an implicit disappointment at the lack of progress in implementing the OIC-2025 Programme of Action (PoA) for 2016-25, which was taken up after the unsatisfactory outcomes of the first PoA (2005-15). Taking up such ambitious plans does not make any sense unless the OIC strengthens its implementation, monitoring and evaluation capacities. Hopefully, the OIC would do what is necessary to fulfil the expectations of its member-states in today's vastly-changed global context.
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