Recent Issues

Safeguarding Family Values and the Institution of Marriage in OIC Countries (17 February 2017)

Introduction

The OIC-2025 Programme of Action identifies the advancement and empowerment of family welfare as a vital priority for OIC Member States. This is in realization that Islam, the OIC, and various international instruments have long recognized the constructive role of the marriage and family institution for their members and the wider human community. Yet, many of the OIC Member countries share common concerns on the state of family union and well-being such as increasing divorce rate, decreasing number of children per women, late-marriages and limited participation of women into labour force. To address these concerns, the OIC Member countries held the First Session of the Ministerial Conference on Strengthening Marriage and Family Institution and Preserving its Values in Member States of the OIC in 2017. More recently, at the First Ministerial Conference on Social Development in 2019, OIC Member countries mutually agreed upon the adoption of the OIC Strategy for the Empowerment of the Family and Marriage Institution (2020-2025) prepared by the Tripartite Committee which SESRIC took a leading role in. Recognizing the need to deal with social development issues at the OIC-level, the OIC Member countries have mutually agreed to have the Ministerial Conference on Social Development biennially to discuss and deliberate the various issues pertaining to social issues with family being a central topic of concern. To facilitate the efforts of OIC Member countries and provide technical information on the issues of concern to the family, SESRIC played a pivotal role in the preparation of various research outputs such as the OIC Family strategy. SESRIC has also made critical contributions on the subject by preparing the periodic report on Safeguarding Family Values and the Institution of Marriage in OIC countries, to serve as a technical background report for the relevant Ministerial Fora. These reports examine the status of the marital and family institution in the OIC Member countries and map ongoing and emerging trends that affect familial and marital values and demographics by employing a diverse range of quantitative data that is relevant to the family and marriage institution.