The New Vision places the empowerment of women and children and the protection of their rights in the forefront of its activities. In this regard the OIC has placed a renewed impetus to urging Member States to sign, ratify and adhere to the provisions of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which remains to date the most comprehensive attempt at establishing international standards to protect the rights of women. Additionally the New Vision places great emphasis on Member States to continue to press on with country level efforts to harmonize national legislation with the articles and principles of CEDAW.
In its efforts to develop a comprehensive convention on women’s rights which is culturally sensitive to Islamic norms and practices and one that all OIC Member States can adhere to without reservation, the New Vision has called for the development of The Covenant on the Rights of Women in Islam in accordance with Resolution No. 60/27-P and the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam. In this regard the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) will organize training seminars in collaboration with the UN High Commissioner’s Office of Human Rights and an intergovernmental group of experts will meet in March 2007 to draft the Covenant.
In line with the New Vision and the theme of the United Nations International Women’s Day 2006 "Women in Decision-Making: Meeting Challenges, Creating Change” the OIC organized the first ever biannual conference on the “The Role of Women in the Development of OIC Member States” in Istanbul in 2006 where high-level delegations from 43 OIC Member States and 8 international organizations took part. The conference established, within the OIC framework, an open-ended government group representing the OIC Member States to ensure the development of action plans.
The New Vision places great emphasis upon inter-agency cooperation, particularly with the gender-specialized agencies of the UN. A joint OIC-UN coordination meeting in 2006 outlined areas of collaboration with the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Commission on the Status of Women and the UN International Research Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW). ISESCO and UNIFEM will cooperate on science and ICT related projects that strengthen women’s participation in the information sector while UNIFEM and the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRTCIC) will undertake cooperative projects on women’s education in the Least Developed African OIC Member States and the empowerment of women in public life.
ISESCO has also organized several regional and national workshops and training sessions on the issues of Muslim women in Egypt (Cairo, March 2006), Afghanistan (Kabul & Kandahar), Benin (Cotonou), Jordan (Amman), Mauritania (Nouakchott) and Palestine (Ramallah). Additionally, the Islamic Fiqh Academy (IFA) will deliver a series of lectures on the topic of promoting women’s rights in Islam, culminating in the 18th Session of the IFA Conference in Malaysia in 2007 that will focus on the rights and responsibilities of the Muslim woman.
