Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was founded in September 1969 in Rabat, Morocco, following an arson attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. It was originally called the Organisation of the Islamic Conference; the name was changed to "Organisation of Islamic Cooperation" in 2011 at the 38th Council of Foreign Ministers in Astana.

The OIC currently has 57 member states spanning four continents, making it the second-largest intergovernmental organisation after the United Nations. Its permanent General Secretariat is located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, intended as a provisional seat pending the liberation of Jerusalem, which the OIC designates as the permanent capital of the State of Palestine.

The organisation operates under the Charter of the OIC, originally adopted in 1972 and substantially revised in 2008 at the Dakar Summit. Its principal organs include:

• The Islamic Summit Conference of heads of state, convened every three years
• The Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), which meets annually
• The General Secretariat, led by a Secretary-General elected for a five-year term
• The Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC), established in 2011

Specialised and affiliated institutions include the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), and the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC).

Core agenda items have historically centred on the Palestinian question and the status of Jerusalem, solidarity among Muslim states, countering Islamophobia, and economic and scientific cooperation. The OIC adopted the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam in 1990, which interprets human rights within a Sharia framework and has drawn criticism from secular human-rights advocates. A revised version, the OIC Declaration on Human Rights, was adopted in 2020 in Abidjan.

The OIC holds observer status at the United Nations General Assembly (granted in 1975) and frequently coordinates voting positions of its members in UN bodies, particularly on Palestine, Kashmir, and Myanmar's Rohingya.