9th Elective Ordinary General Assembly Meeting – 25.06.2022, MÜSİAD Headquarters Istanbul

As you know, the Union of NGOs of the Islamic World (UNIW) was established in 2005 by the decision of the Cabinet Decree, and as of today, it is an umbrella NGO with 354 members from 65 countries in 6 continents, that continues to work towards the establishment of sustainable relations between NGOs in the Islamic geography.

Considering that civil society plays a very important role in establishing contact with friendly and brotherly countries, UNIW provides coordination among its member NGOs working on the same axis.

Since the Union of NGOs of the Islamic World is an NGO umbrella organization, it has organized effective and resounding programs with its 354 members in a wide variety of fields, from education to family, from human rights and international law to humanitarian aid, from DAWAH activities to youth and economy.

In this framework, UNIW holds general meetings with its members once a year, to evaluate past activities and to consulate future projects. In this axis, the 9th Ordinary General Assembly Meeting of the Union of NGOs of the Islamic World (UNIW) was held on Saturday, June 25, 2022, at MÜSİAD Headquarters in Istanbul.

Representatives of around 150 member organizations from nearly 40 countries attended the meeting. Upon the determination of the meeting quorum, the opening speech of the General Assembly was made by the Secretary General Atty. Ali Kurt. Council Committee of the General Assembly was formed to conduct the meeting and Atty. Hamza Akbulut as Council Chairman,  Atty. Necati Ceylan as Deputy Chair of the Council, Abdülrakip Obad is also as Deputy Chair of the Council and Atty. Salahattin Yanar was elected as secretary of the Council unanimously.

After the discussion and determination of the agenda, last term activity reports of the UNIW were read and evaluated.

In the 9th Elective General Assembly, in addition to the evaluations of the past periods, evaluations and consultations were made within the framework of the strategic goals for the new period, information about current projects such as International Civil Soceity Academy, the International Family Institute, the International Consortium for Rohingya (ICR), International Youth Gatherings (IYG), Humanitarian Aid Platform (IYP) and activities of commissions was shared.

Co-Chair of International Family Institute Dr. Rabiye Yılmaz, President of Humanitarian Aid Platform Musab Aydın and Young UNIW President Furkan Sonkaya shared information about the commission activities. In addition to these, issues such as the effective calendar and financing of other projects were discussed by the members of the General Assembly, evaluations and suggestions were consulted.

At the meeting, the Deputy Secretary Generals also took the floor and gave speeches on behalf of the region and country they represent. Ahmad Azam on behalf of Malaysia, Abdus Shakoor on behalf of Pakistan, Rasheedu’z Zaman on behalf of Bangladesh, Gulam Nabi Fai on behalf of USA, Rafet al Mikhati and Imad Said on behalf of Lebanon, Harun Khatibi on behalf of Afghanistan, Ata al Mennan on behalf of Sudan expressed their opinions and suggestions.

In this elected general assembly, Eyüp Akbal elected as new Secretary General of the UNIW. He took over from Atty. Ali Kurt. Mr. Ali will continue to support UNIW as Honorary Chairman and Chairman of the Advisory Board.

In his thank-you speech, Mr. Ali stated that they will continue their voluntary service and that they have worked with many of his friends at every stage since the first day of UNIW’s establishment, and he continued to say:

“We have to be one body, like the stones of a building, with the consciousness of the Ummah. No activity is small in this regard. We carried out these works under the umbrella of UNIW, with your support, in the spirit of solidarity and alliance. Special thanks to each and every one of you.

As you know, there is no such thing as retirement in such voluntary services, there is no such thing as standing aside and watching from afar. We will continue to support our umbrella organizations such as UNIW and share our knowledge and experience regarding the problems of our ummah and producing solutions to their problems.

While thanking each and every one of you again, I congratulate our newly elected friends and wish them success from my Allah.

Our new Secretary General Eyüp Akbal thanked the members and stated that they would carry the flag they took over to higher heights.

Akbal said: “Even though we are people of different races and colours, speaking different languages, we are all actually “one” nation, belonging to the same religion. As the representatives of each institution that makes up the UNIW, as Mr. Ali expressed, we are like the stones of a building. We should know each other better in every sense, find solutions to our own problems and support each other.”

The Secretary General continued as follows: “We, who took over this flag today, should run faster on this axis and work harder to raise the UNIW to higher levels.

Our aim will be to ensure sustainable development, unity and coordination among the non-governmental organizations of the Islamic world, and to make efforts with your support.”

The meeting ended with the listening of suggestions and wishes.