The OIC's Human Rights Policies in the UN - a Problem of Coherence

As part of DIHR's new theme on human rights and universality, Matters of Concern presents a series of papers discussing contemporary challenges to the legitimacy of universal human rights through analyses of key actors, dynamics and discourses.

This paper explores the UN human rights policies of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), with a particular focus on the organization's consistent attempts at criminalizing defamation of religion. Over the years, the OIC has accumulated a record of self-contradictory statements on Islamic law and international human rights law, sometimes treating Islamic law as overriding UN human rights principles and at other times claiming to support the UN system. Can the OIC articulate a coherent philosophy on how Islam relates to human rights? Can it reconfigure its mission along lines consistent with the values in UN human rights law? Can it squarely confront the grievous human rights deficiencies in its member states and develop policies less afflicted by double standards?

About the author

Ann Elizabeth Mayer is an Emeritus Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her research areas include Islamic law in contemporary Middle Eastern and North African countries and international human rights law, with an emphasis on women's international human rights. She has published extensively on these subjects, and the fifth edition of her book Islam and Human Rights was published in 2012. She has conducted research in countries ranging from Morocco to Pakistan and has collaborated with a number of human rights NGOs on issues involving human rights in the Middle East and North Africa.