'Human Rights in Islam' under the spotlight
Regional, Politics, 3/14/2002

An international symposium entitled "Human Rights in Islam and Protection of its Basic Freedoms" will be held March 14-15, at the U.N. headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, with several international experts attending.

Cosponsored by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC/based in Jeddah) and the United Nations, the symposium is meant to stress the civilizational and historical role of the Islamic Ummah and to inform about its lofty principles and values relating to human rights.

The aim is to protect humankind against utilization and persecution, to safeguard their life, bodies, property and honor; as well as emphasize their freedom and rights in an honorable life in conformity with the Sharia (Islamic law), the OIC said.

An elite group of scholars, thinkers and researchers from various parts of the Islamic world and a number of international officials will participate in the Symposium.

The opening session will highlight with speeches by OIC Secretary General, Abdelouahed Belkziz, and the UN High Commissioner For Human Rights Mary Robinson.

The event features four sessions during which various legal and social research papers will be submitted, each dealing with a subject directly relevant to the theme of the Symposium.

The 19th Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, held in Cairo in 1990, approved the "Cairo Declaration On Human Rights in Islam" which is considered an important documentary reference for the Symposium whose subject has a direct impact on expediting the realization of development, progress and stability in the various economic, social and political fields.

The Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers mandated an Intergovernmental Group of Experts in Islamic States with formulating Islamic criteria and values and codifying them in the form of universally recognized Islamic covenants and charters on human rights.

The Group of Experts held six meetings, the recent of which was convened in Jeddah in 1999. It adopted several recommendations which were approved and backed by the 9th Islamic Summit Conference, held in Qatar in 2000.

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