Islamic Court of Justice — Born Dead?

18 November 2016

By Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi

OBSERVERS wonder about the absence of the International Islamic Court of Justice to arbitrate in conflicts among Muslim countries. As a matter of fact, the birth of the court is harder than expected, and a similar project for the Arab League was born dead.

The mandate of such a court is to judge disputes among member states. This does not apply to the Yemeni conflict because it is between a legitimate government and rebels, not between two countries. However, it is ideal to judge the UAE-Iranian dispute over the islands of Greater Tunb, Smaller Tunb and Abu Musa.

I wish we could activate this court in contentious issues between Islamic countries. For instance, Yemen and the Gulf states may take Iran to court for its interference in their internal affairs.

To learn about the history and objectives of the court, here's a quick review. Ten years after the establishment of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (Now the Organization of Islamic Cooperation), in 1969, Kuwait called for the creation of an Islamic Court of Justice.

Among the measures adopted by the third Islamic Summit in 1981, was the setup of a statute for the Islamic International Court of Justice (IICJ). The statute underwent a series of revisions during 1981, 1982 and 1983.

The 14th conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Islamic states adopted a resolution to create the actual court in 1984. Further revisions of this statute caused the adoption of the statute of Islamic International Court of Justice to be postponed until the 5th Islamic Summit in 1987. Till today, the court has not been activated.

A similar institution was called for in the Arab League to contribute to the settlement of disputes between member states, but did not see the light of day, because some members refused to submit to international judiciary.

Before we suggest remedies, let us, in a nutshell, review the making of the Organization. When King Abdulaziz Al-Saud called for Islamic unity and invited Muslim leaders to the first conference of its kind in Makkah, 1926, most Muslim lands were occupied. The initiative was carried over by his son King Saud, who established the Muslim World League in 1962. King Faisal took it to higher level with the Organization of Islamic Conference in 1969. Other institutions, including the Islamic Development Bank, Islamic International News agency, Islamic Broadcasting Union, International Islamic Relief Organization, World Association of Muslim Youth, International Islamic Fiqh Academy, and the Center for Sectarian Dialogue came up to further strengthen functionality.

The ultimate objective was to unite the Muslim Ummah and to strengthen the cooperation among Muslim nations. This includes political, economic, social, educational and cultural collaboration. Other ambitious projects included common market similar to that of the European Union.

However, while Europe managed to unite after World War II, overcoming its history of wars, the Muslim Union dream ended where it started. Bureaucratic institutions run in circles. Except for the Islamic Bank and some political solidarity on common issues such as Palestine, we were unable to do more than endless conferences with few solid achievements. The common market, central bank, Islamic dinar, peace force, open borders, Supreme Court, and other dreams are not realized, not even in the pipelines.

Therefore, I have a proposal to make. Projects with common sponsors usually fail. They need ownership. Countries that would sponsor a project would take the credit for success or failure. Say we start an Islamic banking association to organize, regulate and supervise the thriving Islamic banking industry. If we were to put it under one of the existing economic or political institutions it will die a dignified death. But if we give the whole project to a country with an experience in the field, like Malaysia or Bahrain, chances are it would succeed.

Similarly, we could assign the establishment of a central bank to Turkey, the common market to Emirates, the sectarian Dialogue center to Egypt, and the peace force to Pakistan. Projects may include family planning, agriculture technology, food security, sustainable development, renewable energy and scientific research. We could also enhance collaboration among non-governmental organizations and civic societies.

The United Nations did similarly by locating some of its agencies in different counties. While the Headquarters is based in New York City, the UNESCO is in Paris, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome and the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. Following the same way, and giving more autonomy and sponsorship to base countries would give extra energy, creativity, flexibility and competitiveness to the mangers of similar Islamic agencies.

I hope and pray that The Islamic Court of Justice and similar institutions would be activated or realized, and made to do what is supposed to be doing. I wish, in this new Hijri Year, that such projects are taken more seriously and that our leaders would do more to strengthen our ties and cooperation as a Muslim Ummah.

— Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah. He can be reached at kbatarfi@gmail.com. Follow him at Twitter:@kbatarfi 

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