International Law and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the second biggest international organization after the United Nations. It comprises fifty-seven full member states, representing one-quarter of the global population, and it is the only international organization whose unifying feature is its religious and Islamic identity. As such, it represents an anomaly in international relations and largely explains why the organization has not figured in the majority of mainstream publications on international law until relatively recently. Established in the wake of universal Muslim outrage following the burning of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969, the OIC has provided a political platform for predominantly Muslim states to promote “Islamic solidarity.” But it has also provided a forum to develop consensual positions on many international matters—from international trade and the development of Islamic banking and halal food networks to peace and security, hate speech, and the protection of Muslim minorities. The OIC now forms a considerable bloc of countries at the UN and, with the presence of both Russia and China as observers, it has capacity to wield considerable influence on the world stage and to co-sponsor common agendas. For much of its existence, however, the OIC has been a peripheral grouping and a marginal player. Although it has forty-eight subsidiary and specialized organs, the organization itself is often dismissed as a talking shop and is without any enforcement legal machinery. No committee is endowed with powers to mirror the UN’s Security Council nor has the OIC established any legal body to issue binding legal rulings on member states. The International Islamic Court of Justice, the intended Islamic World Court, seated in Jerusalem, has never operated and even its statute is yet to be ratified by the required two-thirds of OIC members. In spite of its known weaknesses and historical failures, under the leadership of its current and previous secretary-general, the OIC has sprung to life. Since arming itself with a new “fit for purpose” Charter in 2008, the OIC has shown a greater willingness to engage in key areas of international law, including humanitarian law, peace-making, human rights, international terrorism, and, more recently, environmental protection and climate change. If concerns were formerly expressed at the OIC’s apparent ambivalence toward international law, the recent case brought against the government of Myanmar for committing genocide against the Rohingyas by the Gambia in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), with the full backing of the OIC, and the ICJ order in January 2020 against Myanmar for preliminary relief provides evidence of increasing engagement with international law and of success when doing so.