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Chapter 7: Civil Society and Accountability in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference: Which Good Governance and for What Purpose?

Author: Saied Ameli 
 

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) claims and is often perceived to be a type of United Nations for the Islamic world. As a global governance agency encompassing 57 Muslim majority countries around the world, it can potentially represent a multilingual and multicultural ‘Islamic unity’. This chapter first describes the OIC and examines its instruments for accountability. The second part considers notions of civil society and its accountability role in a context of Islamic and religious democracy. Such an analysis raises the issue whether ‘Islamic civil society’ promotes a different concept of good governance, or whether notions of civil society and democratic accountability have universal purchase. The third part of the chapter argues that, while there are no significant civil society activities in the OIC, such interactions could potentially have significant accountability consequences. Reflections are offered on what sorts of developments would need to occur in order to realise these possibilities in the future. In this regard it is important to consider the Ten-Year Programme of Action (POA) that the OIC adopted in December 2006. The POA is a response to questions concerning the accountability of the OIC: to its member states; to civil society organisations; and to international society as a whole. The POA could bring more tolerance, participation and accountability in the OIC, including vis-à-vis civil society.

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