Established in 1969, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is an intergovernmental organization the purpose of which is the strengthening of solidarity among Muslims. Headquartered in Jeddah, the OIC today consists of fifty seven states from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The OIC's longevity and geographic reach, combined with its self-proclaimed role as the United Nations of the Muslim world, raise certain expectations as to its role in global human rights politics. However, to date, these hopes have been unfulfilled. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Human Rights sets out to demonstrate the potential and shortcomings of the OIC and the obstacles on the paths it has navigated.
Historically, the OIC has had a complicated relationship with the international human rights regime. Palestinian self-determination was an important catalyst for the founding of the OIC, but the OIC did not develop a comprehensive human rights approach in its first decades. In fact, human rights issues were rarely, if at all, mentioned at the organization's summits or annual conferences of foreign ministers. Instead, the OIC tended to focus on protecting Islamic holy sites and strengthening economic cooperation among member states. As other international and regional organizations expanded the international human rights system in the 1990s, the OIC began to pay greater attention to human rights, although not always in a manner that aligned with Western conceptions.

This volume provides essential empirical and theoretical insights into OIC practices, contemporary challenges to human rights, intergovernmental organizations, and global Islam. Essays by some of the world's leading scholars examine the OIC's human rights activities at different levels-in the UN, the organization's own institutions, and at the member-state level-and assess different aspects of the OIC's approach, identifying priority areas of involvement and underlying conceptions of human rights.

Contributors: Hirah Azhar, Mashood A. Baderin, Anthony Tirado Chase, Ioana Cismas, Moataz El Fegiery, Turan Kayaoglu, Martin Lestra, Ann Elizabeth Mayer, Mahmood Monshipouri, Marie Juul Petersen, Zeynep Sahin-Mencütek, Heiní Skorini, M. Evren Tok.

Introduction
-Marie Juul Petersen and Turan Kayaoglu

PART I. FOUNDATIONS
Chapter 1. Setting the Scene
-Anthony Tirado Chase
Chapter 2. The Human Rights Agenda of the OIC: Between Pessimism and Optimism
-Mashood A. Baderin
Chapter 3. The OIC's Human Rights Regime
-Turan Kayaoglu

PART II. INTERVENTIONS: RIGHTS AND VALUES
Chapter 4. The OIC's Human Rights Policies in the UN: A Problem of Coherence
-Ann Elizabeth Mayer
Chapter 5. The OIC and Freedom of Expression: Justifying Religious Censorship Norms with Human Rights Language
-Heini í Skorini
Chapter 6. Competing Perceptions: Traditional Values and Human Rights
-Moataz El Fegiery
Chapter 7. The Position of the OIC on Abortion: Not Too Bad, Ugly, or Just Confusing?
-Ioana Cismas
Chapter 8. The OIC and Children's Rights
-Mahmood Monshipouri and Turan Kayaoglu

PART III. INTERSECTIONS: CONFLICTS AND COOPERATION
Chapter 9. The OIC and Conflict Resolution: Norms and Practical Challenges
-Hirah Azhar
Chapter 10. Fragmented Aid: The Institutionalization of the OIC's Foreign Aid Framework
-Martin Lestra and M. Evren Tok
Chapter 11. Governance of Refugees in the OIC
-Zeynep Sahin Mencütek
Chapter 12. The OIC and Civil Society Cooperation: Prospects for Strengthened Human Rights Involvement?
-Marie Juul Petersen

Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments