Organization of Islamic Cooperation

Since the adoption of the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI) in 1990, there was an ongoing debate between Western and Muslim states regarding the compatibility of its provisions with human rights standards. The adoption of Ten-Year Program of Action in 2005 was a turning point in the OIC human rights agenda. The establishment of the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) paved the way for the revision of the CDHRI in 2020 and it was described as a monumental success. This article shall review the in which the OIC has re-engaged to human rights after 30 years of controversies with a descriptive and analytical method. First, we will study the general framework of the revised Declaration and the challenges of the adoption process, and then we will evaluate the changes made in its content by comparing the two declarations. The paper concludes that the revised declaration may bring OIC human rights rhetoric in alignment with UN human rights language, nevertheless, the IPHRC failed to carry out its mandated task in bringing human rights standards in harmony with Islamic teachings and values, especially where it simply copied and pasted the text of international human rights instruments.