OIC to host 5th meeting on combating discrimination and violence based on religion

The meeting of the Istanbul Process for the implementation of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Resolution 16/18 “Combating Incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence based on religion or belief” will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, 3-4 June 2015.

A large number of stakeholders including Member and non-Member States, international organizations, NGOs and academia as well as legal practitioners of the subject will be attending the meeting.

Resolution 16/18 adopted in 2011 by consensus is a result of an OIC initiative to reach out to the key partners in the United Nations, such as the United States, European Union and others, to craft a text that steered the debate away from controversial concepts and suggested a balanced yet comprehensive Action Plan to combat incitement to hatred, violence and discrimination based on one’s religion or belief. In July 2011, OIC Secretary General, US Secretary of States, EU High Representative and other key Western and OIC countries’ leaders met in Istanbul and agreed to have an informal follow up mechanism to give effect to the action plan of this resolution. As agreed under Istanbul Process, regular meetings are being held in different parts of the world to follow up the implementation of the Action Plan by different stakeholders at different levels. So far four meetings have been held in Washington, London, Geneva and Doha.

Among other things, the 5th meeting of the Istanbul Process in Jeddah will focus on how to strengthen universal consensus on Resolution 16/18 as well as to ensure the full and effective implementation of its Action Plan at national and international levels. The meeting will also endeavor to benefit from the views of legal practitioners on how to use the existing legal regimes being practiced in different countries to combat incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence based on religion and belief.

The OIC looks forward to welcoming all stakeholders in this meeting, which hopefully will renew the commitment and consensus on this text as well as help find practical solutions to the difficult issues that can be universally applied across different legal regimes. (oic-oci.org)