OIC Press Release

Dr. Azeddine Laraki, Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is to open the 2nd Meeting of the Group of Experts on Elaborating a Plan of Action for Safeguarding the Rights of Muslim Communities and Minorities in non-OIC Member States scheduled to be held in Brazil, April 17-19, 2000.

Participating in organizing the meeting, alongside the OIC, are the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization in Iran and the Islamic Da'wa Center for Latin America in Brazil. The meeting will be attended by members of the Committee of Experts in charge of Muslim Minority Affairs which groups an elite of major intellectuals and eminent Islamic personalities with a great acumen and specialization.

The Committee's meeting comes within the framework of implementing the resolutions of Islamic conferences calling for ensuring all effective and appropriate measures to protect the rights of Muslim minorities in non-OIC Member States and take care of their religious and national rights without interring in or prejudicing the sovereignty of the States to which those Muslim communities belong, as well as follow up the implementation of the recommendations adopted by the First Meeting of the Committee which had been held in Madrid in December 1998. Those recommendations called for addressing the problems facing Muslim minorities and communities in non-OIC Member States, elaborating appreciate solution to the problems and attaching those minorities and communities to the Muslim world in such a way as to enhance the overall spirit of Islamic solidarity and fraternity.

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