The thirteenth Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was held in Istanbul, the main city of Turkey, from 14 to 15 April 2016 with the participation of about sixty delegations. The summit ended with the approval of the final declaration, the adoption of a resolution on Palestine and the Programme of action for the decade 2015-2025.
At paragraph 177 of the final declaration the members [...] expressed their renewed determination to tackle and address, through joint Islamic action, the recent upsurge in xenophobic attacks, violent extremism, inequality, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and the factors giving rise to their resurgence. In this regard, the Conference supports efforts to galvanize the international community towards re-engaging with the ongoing discourse on the negative historic legacies of trans-Atlantic slave trade slavery, colonialism and looting of cultural heritage and artifacts and the related issues of restitution, reparations and atonement for these wrongs, including the need for an agreement on strategies for achieving them [...].
At paragraph 178 of the final declaration the members [...] further mandated the OIC, its relevant Organs and its Groups in New York and Geneva to support the convening an international conference to comprehensively discuss the issue of the slave trade, slavery, colonialism, restitution and reparations. Such a conference shall also discuss measures and strategies to address the lasting negative impact of these historic wrongs. Thus, the Conference called upon other stakeholders including other member states of the United Nations, the Caribbean Community, the African Diaspora and relevant CSOs to advance this agenda from where it was left at the Durban Conference of 2001 and its follow-up review meetings [...].
Colonialism Reparation welcomes the support given by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to the convening of an international conference to discuss the issues of the slave trade, slavery, colonialism, restitution and reparations and calls on other international organizations such as the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), the African Union (AU), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the European Union (EU), etc. to follow this example.