social
Affairs
Al-Othaimeen Calls for Monitoring and Resolving Challenges Affecting Girls The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Dr Yousef AlOthaimeen, addressed a call to the member states and relevant organs to intensify work on monitoring and exploring the challenges affecting girls across the Muslim world, enabling them to access adequate education and good-quality care. There is need to improve the lives of girl children, especially those in difficulty in conflict-
torn regions, those suffering under occupation, displaced and refugee children and rural girls, he underlined. While celebrating the International Day of the Girl, marked on October 11 every year, Dr Al-Othaimeen called for more efforts to uphold the rights of girls, giving them greater opportunity for a successful life, while raising awareness about forms of inequality against them.
For the record, the fifth OIC Ministerial Conference on the Child (Rabat, February 2018) recommended, inter alia, that studies on all types of violence against children and child labor in the Muslim world be conducted, in recognition of how catering to girlhood shapes the future of societies and drives allround progress and prosperity in the Muslim world.
Review of the OIC Strategy for Empowering Marriage and Family Institution A meeting of the Open-ended Group of Inter-Governmental Experts to review the draft OIC Strategy for Empowering Marriage and Family Institution took place at the OIC Headquarters in Jeddah on October 1, 2019. The meeting convened in implementation of the resolution of the First Session of the Ministerial Conference on Marriage and Family Institution and Preservation of its Values in the OIC Member States. The said resolution stipulated developing the OIC Strategy for Empowering Marriage and Family Institution in the Muslim World. Dr. Yousef A. Al-Othaimeen, the OIC Secretary-General, extended his sincere thanks and appreciation to Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al
Saud and HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for hosting the First Session of the Ministerial Conference in 2017. He also thanked the Saudi government for its efforts to follow up on the implementation of its resolutions and for the attention and support accorded by Saudi Arabia, the Headquarters State, to the OIC. In his speech delivered by Amb. Samir Bakr, the Assistant Secretary-General for Palestine and Al-Quds, Al-Othaimeen indicated the meeting would discuss and enrich the OIC draft OIC Strategy for Empowering Marriage and Family Institution before the submission thereof to the Senior Officials› Meeting of the Ministerial Conference of Social Development scheduled in Turkey next November for review and then adoption by the Minis-
terial Conference. Al-Othaimeen highlighted the challenges facing the marriage and family institution in many OIC Member States, especially high divorce rate, worsening unemployment and poverty, domestic violence, displacement due to wars and unrest, destabilization of the family concept and foundations, and the impact of the media and globalization. The two-day meeting discussed the draft OIC Strategy for Empowering Marriage and Family Institution submitted by the OIC General Secretariat, the Islamic Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ISESCO), the Center for Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) and the International Islamic University Malaysia.
On their International Day: OIC calls for Attention to the elderly The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) joins the international community in celebrating the World Day of Older Persons, which falls on October 1, to highlight the significant contributions that older people make to society, to take pride in their giving, and to raise awareness of the problems and challenges they face. The OIC attaches special importance to the elderly in its Member States. The resolutions adopted by the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers called on Member States and OIC Subsidiary, Specialized and Affiliated Organs to strengthen its role in addressing policies related to the elderly and promoting Islamic values and traditions in order to provide healthy lives for them. The relevant Ministerial Resolutions also called for a Ministerial Conference on «Promoting the welfare and
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social security of the Elderly in the Islamic World». The General Secretariat works in coordination with the Member States and the relevant OIC Organs to achieve this goal. The 14th Islamic Summit Conference, held in Makkah Al-Mukarramah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2019, also welcomed the efforts
made in this regard. In the light of the General Secretariat’s keen interest to achieve the desired level of the well-being of the elderly, and as a result of the recommendations of the workshops organized at the headquarters of the General Secretariat in 2018, and in Niamey, Republic of Niger in 2019, a draft OIC strategic plan for the elderly was prepared by The Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Center (SESRIC), one of the OIC Subsidiary Organs, to be presented to the next Ministerial Conference on Social Affairs. The Secretariat calls upon Member States and all institutions concerned with the issues of older persons to undertake awareness-raising activities on the issues and concerns of this group.
OIC Journal Sept - Dec 2019
45
