Pakistan will host the first-ever OIC Ministerial Conference on "the problems of refugees in the Muslim World" in collaboration with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on November 27-29 this year, says an official statement. Pursuant to a decision taken by the Tenth Islamic Summit Conference held in Putrajaya, Malaysia in October 2003, Pakistan has offered to host the conference. This would be the first ever conference of the Organization of Islamic Conference that would exclusively focus attention on the refugee issues. The OIC member states presently host an estimated 9 million refugees and persons of concern to UNHCR, out of a total of approximately 20 million. This figure does not include the Palestinian refugees, who fall within the specific mandate given by the UN General Assembly to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The conference would highlight the fact that OIC member states continue to generously provide protection and assistance to refugees, despite the fact that many refugee situations in OIC Member States are of a protracted nature. The conference would demand more resolute action in order to address the root causes of such refugee movement as well as more robust multilateral cooperation in order to find durable solutions. The main themes of the conference include enhancing refugee protection in the Muslim World; enhancing multilateral cooperation in resolving refugee situations; and intensifying the search for durable solutions as well as initiatives and conditions necessary for achieving sustainable solutions. Subsequent to the offer by the Government of Pakistan to host the conference, a series of trilateral preparatory meetings continue to be held between the representatives of the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah, UNHCR and Pakistan. Likewise, the OIC Group in Geneva has continued to extensively deliberate upon and finalize the documents, which are expected to be adopted by the conference. These would include a Concept Paper, three Working Documents on each of the above stated themes, an Islamabad Declaration as well as a Plan of Action.
