OIC Convenes an Emergency Meeting to Mobilize Efforts to Address Syrian Refugee Crisis

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will be holding a meeting on Sunday, 13 September 2015, at its General Secretariat headquarters in Jeddah, to discuss the ramifications of the Syrian refugee crisis and mobilize efforts to address it. The OIC General Secretariat has addressed invitations to all the Member States to attend the open-ended meeting of the Executive Committee at the permanent representatives’ level and examine the Syrian refugee crisis. The Committee is comprised of the Islamic Summit and the Council of Foreign Ministers Troikas which include ‘Egypt, Senegal and Turkey’, and ‘Kuwait, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan’, respectively, in addition to the OIC Secretary General. According to the agenda, this meeting whose idea proceeds from the principles and objectives of the OIC Charter, falls within the framework of the Ten-year Program of Action and coheres with the various UN and OIC resolutions on the situation in Syria, will examine ways and means to address the humanitarian crisis endured by the Syrian refugees within the region and elsewhere. The OIC Secretary General, Mr. Iyad Ameen Madani, had issued earlier this week a call in which he appealed to the international community to put aside all calculations other than “humanitarian spirit” and “human dignity” in dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis. In his appeal, the Secretary General said: “The Syrian refugees who drowned in the Mediterranean, or suffocated in a human trafficker’s truck in Austria, none of them are responsible for starting the Syrian crisis or for the failure to stop it. Yet, they are and continue to be the direct victims of both that crisis as well as the failure of the international community, particularly of the Members of the UN Security Council, and the countries of the region, to find a solution to it. This must not, and cannot continue to be so”. It may be noted that the OIC has been following, from the beginning and with deep concern the aggravating humanitarian crisis of the Syrian refugees who are fleeing their homes in search of asylum in neighboring countries. Many Member States of the OIC, foremost of which Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt are shouldering the heavier burden of the influx of refugees from Syria. They have all allocated massive resources to offer shelter for over four million refugees on their respective territories. Also, the OIC is striving, together with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and with other humanitarian partners, to extend a helping hand to the victims of the Syrian conflict.