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A KANTIAN ‘FOUNDATION’ OF HUMAN RIGHTS THROUGH THE IMPOSSIBILITY...
Conference, representing more than 50 member states at that time.’ But its sub¬
stantial shortfalls have become so obvious that the Conference decided to redraft
it, moderating its wording by using phrases intended to align it more with existing
human rights models. Presently (March 2021), it is in the process of being adopted.
But let’s first have a look at the CDHR. Something peculiar springs immediately
into the eyes of the unprepared reader.
The Preamble of the CDHR stipulates mankind’s “freedom and right to
a dignified life in accordance with the Islamic Shari’ah...” At the end of this
document there is also a general clause that concerns anything proclaimed in
this Declaration: “All the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are
subject to the Islamic Shari’ah.” (Art. 24)
Those key passages obviously equal human rights with the provisions of the
Sharia, a kind of civil law for Muslims regulating family affairs which also includes
the stoning of adulterous women. Apparently, the drafters of the Cairo Declaration
simply tried to replace the UDHR with religious dogma. We must infer, therefore,
that non-Muslims are excluded from protection by these rights. At this point we
do not need to continue reading this document.
As mentioned above, a revised version of the Cairo Declaration was drafted
by the now re-baptized Organization of Islamic Cooperation® (OIC). It is more
or less ready for adoption;? it is entitled The OIC Declaration on Human Rights
(OICDHR). Experts see in this new document some improvements vis-a-vis the
Cairo Declaration, but at the end, so critical voices, changes proposed therein are
not much more than cosmetic ones.'° The new declaration “falls short on issues
related to family values, freedom of speech, and political participation."
” For an overview of history and circumstances of the CDHR and its successor declaration
see Mohammad H. Mozaffari, OIC Declaration on Human Rights: Changing the Name or
a Paradigm Change?, 2021; Turan Kayaoglu, The Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s
Declaration on Human Rights: Promises and Pitfalls, Brookings Doha Center Publications
(28 September 2020).
In 2008 the Organisation of Islamic Conference changed its name into Organisation of
Islamic Cooperation.
This revised Cairo Declaration was provisionally adopted in November 2020 by the IOC
Member states. Unfortunately, this document is not available via the Internet. Therefore,
my knowledge of the contents of this new declaration depends exclusively on commentators
familiar with that final draft.
A similar strategy seems to be applied by representatives of the so-called Islamic reform
movement, for instance when propagating the “establishment of a democratic system on the
basis of Islamic moral standards” (my re-translation into English). So one of its figureheads
in Europa, Reza Aslan, Kein Gott ausser Gott: Der Glaube der Muslime von Muhammad
bis zur Gegenwart, trans. Rita Seuss, Miinchen, C.H.Beck, 2019, 297. It is difficult not to
see the problem with such a statement.
1! Kayaoglu, Organisation.
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