OIC Will Set Up New Committee On Human Rights

After a meeting Tuesday with U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay, the Organization of the Islamic Conference announced that it is setting up a permanent independent committee to deal with issues of human rights. MidEast News Source reports that the new committee will likely begin work following a meeting of OIC foreign ministers in Tajikistan next month. Some critics argue that the committee will be effective only if it does not draw its human rights principles from Shariah law. However OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said that universal human rights are in harmony with Islamic values.