Introduction

Under the sponsorship of the Speaker of the Iraqi Council ofRepresentatives, Dr. Saleem al-Jubouri and under the slogan of (Togetheragainst Terrorism and Extremism), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)holds the 11th Session of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization ofIslamic Cooperation Member States (PUIC) and the fifth session of theConference of Muslim Women Parliamentarians from 20/1/2016 to 25/1/2016,pursuant to the resolution adopted by the OIC in the 10th  session held in the republic of Turkey and inresponse to the kind offer of the Speaker of the Council of Representatives ofIraq to host the 11th Session of the PUIC Conference in Baghdad.

The ICOR Secretary General along with a delegation discussed withthe PUIC Secretary General Prof. Dr. Mahmud Erol KILIÇ the arrangements for theConference. They agreed on all organizational matters, meetings and dates tothe 29th Meeting of the PUIC Executive Committee, 6th Meeting of the StandingCommittee on Palestine Affairs, 4th Meeting of the Standing SpecializedCommittee on Political and Foreign Relations, 4th Meeting of the StandingSpecialized Committee on Economic Affairs and Environment, 4th Meeting of theStanding Specialized Committee on Human Rights, Women and Family Affairs, 4thMeeting of the Standing Specialized Committee on Cultural and Legal Affairs andDialogue of Civilizations and Religions, and 18th Session of the PUIC GeneralCommittee.

The critical stage that the Islamic countries go through, thechange of the international stances, the military interventions, the successiveinternational conferences concerning their affairs and the various decisionsthat have been made, all underscored the criticality of the situation andnecessitated holding the conference for the Islamic nations and findingsolutions consistent with the nature of the crisis and settling the outstandingissues that hinder the unity of Muslims in accordance with UN’s recent decisionto fight terrorism, and to give birth to a unified foreign policy whoseultimate goal is to protect Muslims and their countries from this imminent danger.

Hostingthe 11th Session of the PUIC Conference by Baghdad, which was voted onunanimously, constitutes a great importance to the member states in general andIraq in particular. Iraq represents the main gateway to counter the attacks ofterrorist organizations that use all forms of murder and violence against itspeople and infrastructure and destroy its cultural heritage