Source: UNHCR chief launches book on Islam’s contributions to refugee law
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, June 24 (UNHCR) – A UNHCR-sponsored book on the influence of Islam and Arab tradition on modern-day international refugee law was released this week in Saudi Arabia, at a ceremony addressed by High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres.
The comparative study, commissioned by Guterres and contained in a new book by Cairo University law professor and dean of the law faculty, Ahmed Abu Al-Wafa, was launched at Naif Arab University in Riyadh. Presiding over the ceremony were Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Premier, Minister of Interior and head of Naif Arab University’s Supreme Council and the university’s president , Professor Abdul-Aziz bin Saqr al-Ghamedi.
The book says Islam’s 1,400-year-old tradition of generosity toward people fleeing persecution has had more influence on modern-day international refugee law than any other historical source.
In remarks as part of Naif Arab University’s commencement exercise, the High Commissioner said “all the principles embodied in modern international refugee law are to be found in the Shari’ah. Protection of refugees, their property and families, non-refoulement [forced return], the civilian character of asylum, voluntary repatriation – all are referred to in the Holy Koran.”
In his foreword to “The Right to Asylum between Islamic Shari’ah and International Refugee Law: A Comparative Study,” Guterres says the new book shows that more than any other historical source, Islamic law and tradition underpin the modern legal framework upon which UNHCR bases its global activities on behalf of tens of millions of uprooted people. This includes the right of everyone to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution as well as prohibitions against sending those in need of protection back into danger.
“Even though many of those values were a part of Arab tradition and culture even before Islam, this fact is not always acknowledged today, even in the Arab world,” Guterres writes. “The international community should value this 14-century-old tradition of generosity and hospitality and recognize its contributions to modern law.”
In his study, Professor Abu Al-Wafa describes how Islam and Arab tradition respect refugees, including non-Muslims; forbids forcing them to change their beliefs; avoids compromising their rights; seeks to reunite families; and guarantees the protection of their lives and property.
“Today, the majority of refugees worldwide are Muslims,” Guterres writes. “This fact occurs at a time when the level of extremism – ethnic and religious – is on the rise around the globe, even in the world’s most developed societies. Racism, xenophobia and populist fear-mongering manipulate public opinion and confuse refugees with illegal migrants and even terrorists.
We believe this book can make an important contribution in fighting prejudice and distortions about Islam.
– High Commissioner António Gutteres
“These attitudes have also contributed to misperceptions about Islam, and Muslim refugees have paid a heavy price. Let us be clear: refugees are not terrorists. They are first and foremost the victims of terrorism. This book reminds us of our duty to counter such attitudes.”
The book also reflects UNHCR’s close association with the member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which itself adopted in 1990 a Declaration on Human Rights in Islam stipulating that every human being fleeing persecution has the right to seek asylum and receive protection in another country.
In his foreword to the book, OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu notes that the book “demonstrates the equitable and tolerant rules Islamic Shari’ah applies to refugees and how it is keenly concerned with their welfare and interests, while confirming human integrity and man’s right to a free, decent life.”
Naif Arab University’s Prof. al-Ghamedi, said the theme of the study “gains importance in the light of the increase in recent years in the numbers of refugees in Arab and Islamic countries.”
Professor Ahmad At-Tayyib, rector of al-Azhar University in Cairo, noted that the Arab concept of asylum, or “ijarah,” pre-dated Islam and was endorsed by Islamic Shari’ah “because it was one of the established good practices in their traditions and customs, involving noble manners and ethical values such as rescue of people in distress and protection of the oppressed.”
Guterres also presented the book to Prince Faisal Bin Abdullah, president of the Saudi Red Crescent Authority.
“We believe this book can make an important contribution in fighting prejudice and distortions about Islam,” the High Commissioner told the prince. “It can help to show the true face of Islam.”
Tags: al-Azhar University, António Guterres, Cairo University, Islam, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Red Crescent Authority, UNHCR, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Dr Ko Ko Gyi's Blog 
February 12, 2012 at 11:06 am |
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February 12, 2012 at 11:15 am |
Under international law the protection of refugees and IDPs is guaranteed under International Humanitarian Law (IHL)
– mainly the Geneva Convention of 1949 and two additional Protocols of 1977,and the Refugee Convention of 1951 and
the Protocol of 1967. In addition there isthe broader framework of InternationalHuman Rights Law (IHRL), the main
inspiration for which is the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
of 1948. UDHR was a step towardsthe later adoption of human rightstreaties – such as, in 1966, of the two
Covenants on Civil and Political Rights,
and Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights. There are also subsequent
regional and topical instruments
and many specific Conventions
and international agreements that
are relevant to the protection and
assistance of displaced people.2
Islam requires believers to assist and
protect vulnerable people and offers a
number of mechanisms for their care and
support. However, Islam and Islamic
sharia3 do not offer a comprehensive
legal system for the protection of
refugees and IDPs, at least not according
to current understanding of protection.
For example, while there is a right to seek
asylum, exemplified most notably by the
Prophet’s migration to Medina to avoid
persecution, there is no overtly stated
obligation on the part of Islamic states,
in sharia at least, to provide asylum.
There has recently been some debate
about the UDHR4 in the Islamic world,
mainly on the issue of whether it is
compatible with sharia. Some human
rights advocates, both Muslim and
non-Muslim, fear that Islam, or at
least sharia as practised, might be
incompatible with human rights, or
with the UDHR, and therefore with
IHRL. Some Muslims, on the other hand,
argue that the UDHR is in direct conflict
with some principles of sharia law and
thus unsuitable for the Islamic world.
Perhaps the most fundamental
difference between an Islamic and
an internationalist point of view of
human rights lies in the concept itself.
While UDHR stresses the universality
of human rights, Islam recognises two
types of rights: rights that humans are
obliged, by virtue of being the creations
of God, to fulfil and obey; and rights
that they are entitled to expect from
their fellow human beings. It is the latter
that correspond to what are elsewhere
termed ‘human rights’. The former are
rights that stem from, and are obtained
through, belief in God and religion.5 In
this concept only God truly has rights
and the rights of humans are understood
as their obligation to abide by God’s
commands. They are, first and foremost,
the rights of individuals to abide by and
adhere to the laws that God decreed
and are only possible through this belief
system, thus excluding non-Muslims.
Another potentially difficult point to
reconcile is the principle of equality
between men and women. The UDHR
affirms unconditionally the complete
equality between the two sexes. Under
sharia law a woman can expect to be
provided for, while men expect to inherit
twice as much as the woman. In the
situation of the rights of restitution of
property to refugees, for example, this
would raise questions. What are the
implications, for example, for the many
female-headed households trying to
survive or rebuild lives and livelihoods
after conflict and displacement?
Islam does offer an array of rights that
humans, by virtue of being human,
are entitled to and which, from a
modern perspective, seem no different
from many of the rights listed in the
UDHR. For example, the right to life
is a fundamental right in Islam for
Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Similarly, a person, irrespective of their
religion, has the right to be protected
from physical harm unless they commit
a crime that under sharia law would
demand physical punishment or the
Nearly half of the world’s 16 million refugees come from
Muslim countries while 15 million of the total of 26 million
IDPs worldwide are displaced in the Muslim world.1
Islam, international
law and the protection
of refugees and IDPs
Musab Hayatli
FMR ISLAM, HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISPLACEMENT 3
Issue 31
October 2008
Climate change and displacement
In response to growing pressures on landscapes and livelihoods,
people are moving, communities are adapting. We debate the
numbers, the definitions and the modalities – and the tension
between the need for research and the need to act.
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Published by the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford
issue 30
April 2008
Burma’s displaced people
plus our general articles section
and regular contributors:
UNHCR, Brookings-Bern,
RAISE Initiative, NRC,
IDMC and RSC
death penalty. Equally, some countries
which have voted in favour of the
UDHR still carry out death sentences.
In modern democratic states the state
has the ‘monopoly on violence’.6 In
Islam God has this monopoly which
is manifested through Islamic law.7
Rights to justice, equality, safety,
security and human dignity are among
those rights deemed indispensible
in Islam. These are supplemented by
further rights such as social solidarity,
the right to education and to own
property, and freedom from slavery.
It is not difficult to see why some
would argue that many of the rights
acknowledged and guaranteed in the
UDHR are rights that had been granted
in Islam some 14 centuries earlier.
The fact remains that there are certain
aspects of the UDHR that would
make it difficult, if not impossible, for
countries wishing to adopt a sharia legal
system to adopt the UDHR. This was
acknowledged by the Organisation of
the Islamic Conference (OIC), which
includes virtually all Islamic states.
The OIC responded by producing
its own human rights charter which,
while inspired by the UDHR and
emphasising “the commitment of its
member states to the UN Charter and
fundamental Human Rights”, is yet
compatible with Islamic principles.
The Cairo Declaration,8 as the
resulting document is known,
unfortunately suffers from a lack of
universal appeal. This is perhaps an
inevitable consequence of linking
what are thought of as universal
rights to a specific religion.
Are the UDHR and IHRL then simply
incompatible with Islamic law and
sharia? On a very fundamental level,
Islam is egalitarian and seven of the eight
Islamic countries present at the initial
voting in 1948 voted in favour of the
UDHR.9 Iran and Lebanon participated
in the drafting while the then Pakistani
foreign minister called for its adoption.
The UDHR is not a treaty that countries
can sign up to. It is a symbolic document
representing a universal approach to the
rights of all human beings. The actual
commitment of a country to various
international human rights treaties is
through signing up to the individual
treaties. The UDHR serves as a source
of inspiration for the treaties and not
as a legal document. Moreover, most
international treaties permit signatory
parties to express reservations regarding
particular articles or clauses, whether
for country-specific or cultural/
religious reasons. The majority of
Arabic and Islam countries have signed
up to most of these treaties while
expressing some reservation on some
of the details, whether for political
reasons (for example, if an article
or clause might involve an implicit
recognition of the state of Israel) or
for religious reasons (such as granting
equal rights to men and women when
these rights conflict with Islamic
sharia, as in the case of inheritance).
Adopting the international treaties would
help fill the gaps in the Islamic protection
regime, particularly in light of increasing
calls for the adoption of sharia as a source
of national legislation. Protection of
vulnerable groups chimes with the spirit
of Islam. Establishing a legal framework
for protecting refugees and IDPs that is
also recognised internationally would be
a welcome step and would complement
existing support mechanisms.
Musab Hayatli is the editor of the
Arabic edition of Forced Migration
Review (www.fmreview.org) and can
be contacted on nhq@qeh.ox.ac.uk.
1. Zaat, Kirsten ‘The protection of forced migrants in
Islamic law’ Research Paper 146, New Issues in Refugee
Research, UNHCR, Geneva 2007: http://www.unhcr.org/
research/RESEARCH/476652cb2.pdf
2. A list of some of these and the countries that have
acceded to or signed up to them is on page 10.
3. Sharia (meaning ‘way’) is the legal framework within
which the public and private aspects of life are regulated
for those living in a legal system based on Islamic
principles.
4. The text of the UDHR is on pages 6-7.
5. For a more thorough look at this issue see:
‘Proceedings of the Scientific Forum: Human Rights
between Islamic Sharia and human law’, 2001.Naif
Arab University for Security Science, available in
Arabic: http://www.nauss.edu.sa/NAUSS/Arabic/Menu/
ELibrary/EBooks/booksnew9/. See also: Weeramantry,
CG (1998) Islamic jurisprudence: an international perspective.
Houndmills, Macmillan. Also see Ann Elizabeth
Mayer ‘The Islamic Declaration of Human Rights’ and
Dalacoura, Katerina, ‘Islam and Human Rights’ in Rhona
Smith and Christien van den Anker The Essentials of
Human Rights (Hodder Arnold, 2005).
6. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_on_the_
legitimate_use_of_physical_force
7. As in modern states, legislation, interpretation and
application of these laws will vary from one Islamic state
or Islamic authority to another.
8. The text of the Cairo Declaration is on pages 8-9.
9. Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and
Turkey voted in favour while Saudi Arabia abstained.
plus:
n Massive displacement in Iraq
n Forgotten Kosovo IDPs
n Somalis risk death crossing Red Sea
n Misrepresenting Sudan’s Lost Boys
n Voices of displaced Colombians
Published by the Refugee Studies Centre in association
with the United Nations Population Fun d (UNFPA)