Saudi Arabia Hosts First OIC Ministerial Meeting of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Agencies

Saudi Arabia Hosts First OIC Ministerial Meeting of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Agencies
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Saudi Arabia Hosts First OIC Ministerial Meeting of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Agencies

Saudi Arabia Hosts First OIC Ministerial Meeting of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Agencies

Saudi Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority will host the first ministerial meeting of the anti-corruption law enforcement agencies of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) members.

The meeting will be held in Jeddah on Dec. 20 and 21 to discuss several crucial topics, including the approval of the Makkah al-Mukarramah Convention in the organization’s anti-corruption law enforcement agencies.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation is the second largest international organization after the United Nations, with 57 members.

The convention seeks to achieve several goals, including strengthening cooperation between anti-corruption enforcement agencies through exchanging information and investigating cross-border corruption crimes among anti-corruption law enforcement agencies.

It will also address preventing and investigating corruption, prosecuting the perpetrators, denying safe havens for the corrupt, and recovering proceeds of crimes.

Saudi Arabia is keen to activate its international initiatives aimed at combating corruption by participating with the international community in efforts to protect the integrity and combat corruption, benefit and exchange experiences with other countries and international organizations.

It is done under the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and in line with Vision 2030, which made governance, transparency, accountability, and combating corruption one of its main pillars.

Several heads and representatives of anti-corruption law enforcement agencies in the OIC will participate in the meeting.

The meeting will also include the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, and several experts in protecting the integrity and combating corruption from Saudi Arabia and abroad.



GCC Slams Israel’s Attack on Khan Younis, Calling it a War Crime

Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on a makeshift displacement camp in Mawasi Khan Yunis on September 10, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on a makeshift displacement camp in Mawasi Khan Yunis on September 10, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)
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GCC Slams Israel’s Attack on Khan Younis, Calling it a War Crime

Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on a makeshift displacement camp in Mawasi Khan Yunis on September 10, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on a makeshift displacement camp in Mawasi Khan Yunis on September 10, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)

Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi strongly condemned on Tuesday the “brutal massacre carried out by the Israeli forces against innocent Palestinian refugees in Khan Younis in Gaza.”

He stressed that these continuous and brutal attacks perpetrated by the Israeli forces against unarmed civilians in Gaza and the rest of the Palestinian territories “can only be described as deliberate war crimes, revealing a blatant and systematic criminal approach that reflects an utter disregard for international and humanitarian laws and treaties.”

He added that these acts are “blatant contempt for all legal, ethical, and humanitarian values,” the GCC said in a statement.

Albudaiwi called on the international community “to take immediate and urgent action to put an end to these heinous crimes, take decisive measures to cease fire immediately, subject the Israeli forces to accountability for their crimes against humanity, and hold the Israeli government responsible for its racist and barbaric policies against the defenseless Palestinians.”

An Israeli strike hit a crowded Palestinian tent camp early Tuesday in Gaza, killing at least 19 people and wounding 60, Palestinian officials said.

The overnight strike occurred in Mawasi, a sprawl of crowded tent camps along the Gaza coast that Israel designated as a humanitarian zone for hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians to seek shelter from the nearly year-old Israel-Hamas war.

The Muslim World League (MWL) also strongly condemned “the horrific massacres perpetrated by the Israeli forces against the Palestinian people.”

It denounced the continued targeting of unarmed displaced Palestinians in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis, located in a designated “safe zone” in the southern Gaza Strip.

In a statement, MWL Secretary General Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Al-Issa expressed his deepest concern over the Israeli government's “blatant violation of all international and humanitarian resolutions, laws, and norms.”

“This ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, unfolding before the eyes of the world, is a direct challenge to the international community's calls for the protection of innocent lives,” he added.

Sheikh Al-Issa emphasized that “there is no justification for this barbarism and humanitarian tragedy other than defiance, arrogance, and revenge against innocent lives. This escalation only serves to complicate the Palestinian issue and hinder the pursuit of peace in the region.”

The MWL called upon the international community “to take urgent action to halt these ongoing massacres, confront the systematic killing, and stop the humanitarian catastrophe facing the Palestinian people.”