By Muslim Mirror Netwrok
Jeddah: Following the special meeting of Foreign Ministers convened in December on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold its forty-eighth session on the 22nd and 23rd of March 2022 in Islamabad.
Hissein Brahim Taha, the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, has voiced solidarity with the Afghan people on various occasions. He reaffirmed the OIC’s commitment to assisting the country in achieving peace, security, stability, and development. He also urged Member States, Islamic financial institutions, and partners to speed up humanitarian aid to those in need.
Afghanistan has been in a terrible humanitarian position with uncertainties about its future since August 2021. Given the Organization’s uniqueness, which emphasises its responsibilities in resolving issues of the Islamic world, this spurred the OIC to take many steps toward managing the crisis and playing its role in organising international support for the Afghan people.
Throughout the Afghan crisis, the Secretary-General reiterated his unwavering commitment to support an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process, citing resolutions passed by the Islamic Summit and the Council of Foreign Ministers on the country’s circumstances. He also mentioned the Makkah Declaration, which was issued at the end of the Conference of International Scholars on Peace in July 2011.
Following the events in Afghanistan in August 2021, the OIC Foreign Ministers met in Islamabad on December 19 for an emergency session to discuss the humanitarian situation there. The Ministers emphasised the need of the OIC playing a leading role in providing humanitarian and development aid to the Afghan people. The meeting also decided to establish a humanitarian trust fund under the aegis of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to direct humanitarian help to Afghanistan in collaboration with other international entities.
Following the extraordinary meeting’s decision to appoint him as the OIC Secretary-Special General’s Envoy to Afghanistan, Ambassador Tariq Bakheet, OIC Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian, Cultural, and Family Affairs, visited several Member States and established contacts with international partners to ensure that aid and assistance efforts were coordinated appropriately. He also paid a visit to Afghanistan to assess the country’s economic and political engagement.
The OIC General Secretariat, the IsDB, the Trust Fund, and relevant UN Agencies were asked during the December meeting to develop a road map for mobilising activities in the necessary fora to unblock financial and banking channels to restore liquidity and flow of financial and humanitarian assistance. It also asked them to put in place a framework to direct urgent and ongoing humanitarian aid to the Afghan people. In addition, the meeting decided to start an Afghan food security initiative. It requested that the Islamic Organization for Food Security take the required steps by establishing a food security reserve system in this regard. It also asked international donors, UN funds and programmes, and other international entities to make large contributions to the food aid effort.
The Secretary-General is in contact with the International Islamic Fiqh Academy to arrange for a delegation of prominent religious scholars, jurists, and other religious institutions to visit Afghanistan and engage in dialogue on issues of tolerance, moderation, equal access to education, and women’s rights in Islam.
The Foreign Ministers urged Afghanistan to take effective measures against terrorist organisations and organisations such as Al-Qaeda and Daesh, as well as its affiliates. They also urged Afghan authorities to keep working to improve the inclusion process, including developing a road map to increase all Afghans’ engagement in all facets of Afghan society’s existence.