Pakistan has offered to host Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Ministerial Meeting on Refugees in November, UN Refugee agency said on Monday. According to details, the three-day OIC Ministerial Conference on "The Problems of Refugees in the Muslim World" will be held in Islamabad from November 27 to 29.
Following a decision taken by the 10th Islamic Summit Conference held in Putrajaya, Malaysia in October 2003. This will be the first-ever OIC conference to exclusively focus on refugees' issues to be held in collaboration with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
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 these countries are of a protracted nature.
Main themes of the conference were to enhance refugee protection in the Muslim world, enhancing multilateral co-operation in resolving refugee situations and intensifying the search for durable solutions.
A series of trilateral preparatory meetings were being held between the representatives of the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah; the UNHCR headquarters in Geneva and Pakistan government. Likewise, the OIC Group in Geneva had continued to extensively deliberate upon and finalise the documents that would expect 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. In this connection, Pakistan has designated Nayyar Agha, Chief Commissioner for Afghan Refugees as the Chairman of the task force for the conference.