General personally in monitoring and countering Islamophobic incidents. It commended the Observatory for its Annual Report on Islamophobia. It requested the members States to bear their responsibilities in dealing with incidents monitored by the Observatory. The Meeting called the international community, including the United Nations, the European Union, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Alliance of Civilizations and other relevant organizations to engage with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to elaborate common position to combat intolerance. The Meeting welcomed the landmark establishment of the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) and highly commended the Governments of the Republic of Indonesia and the Republic of Turkey for the successful holding of the 1st and 2nd meetings of the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) in 2012, respectively in Jakarta in February, and in Ankara in August. The Meeting reiterated the need to implement the ministerial resolution 2/38-LEG adopted by Astana Conference which decided that the IPHRC should start its operation within the OIC General Secretariat. It encouraged Member States to urge their representatives at the IPHRC to participate actively in its meetings. The Meeting strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations committed by whomsoever and wherever, and reaffirmed its commitment to strengthen mutual cooperation in the fight against terrorism through inter alia, evolving an appropriate definition of terrorism by consensus, mutual exchange of information, capacity building and by addressing the root causes of terrorism such as prolonged unresolved conflicts, continued suppression and marginalization of peoples and denial of the rights of peoples to their self-determination in situations of foreign occupation. The Meeting further condemned and rejected all attempts to associate Islam or any Islamic country, any race, religion, culture or nationality with terrorism. The Meeting took note of the adoption of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in 2006 and its three reviews in 2008, 2010 and 2012 and reaffirmed its status as a living document to be updated and called for the subsequent review mechanism of the strategy to take into account the root causes of terrorism and draw distinction between terrorism and the struggle for the right of self-determination by the people under foreign occupation and colonial or alien domination. The Meeting recognized that a time structured approach, envisaging short, medium, and long term objectives, to the implementation of the strategy could best accommodate the contentious issues related to the strategy. The Meeting called upon the Member States to sign and ratify the OIC Convention on Combating International Terrorism, if they have not already done so. The Meeting reiterated that the struggle of peoples plying under the yoke of foreign occupation and colonialism, to exercise their right to self-determination and to achieve national freedom, does not in any way constitute an act of terrorism. The Meeting considered that the financing of terrorism is a matter of grave concern to the international community and recognized that the payment of ransoms to terrorist groups constitutes one of the main sources of financing of terrorism. The Meeting urged the Member States to cooperate for banning the payment of ransoms claimed by terrorist groups. The Meeting reiterated its support to the continued efforts made by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in establishing the United Nations Counter Terrorism Centre. In addition, the Meeting welcomed the commencement of the activities of the Centre and commended the continuous efforts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in strengthening global efforts in order to effectively eliminate all forms of terrorism. --More
