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Dr. Salim Al-Malik, Director General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), affirmed that justice is the basis of stability and all social success, the secret of development and the lever of human progress, noting that social justice is the highest manifestation of the concept of justice. He further added that enhancing the quality of education, achieving digital justice, and ensuring equality in acquiring and handling digitization sciences, is a must for building healthy societies and a brighter future for humanity.

This was part of the speech Dr. AlMalik delivered today, Tuesday (21 February 2023), at the opening of the 7th International Parliamentary Forum on Social Justice organized by the Council of Councilors in the Kingdom of Morocco, at its headquarters in Rabat, in partnership with the Economic, Social and Environmental Council under the theme “Human Capital: A Fundamental Leverage for Social Justice.” The Forum, which is held under the royal patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may Allah assist him, witnesses a high-level international attendance.

In his speech, the ICESCO DG stated that the society of justice that we seek must overcome the effects of social injustices that humanity suffers from, including exclusion, deprivation and marginalization, noting that the clearest manifestations of these injustices are the deprivation of education, its completion or quality, of health care, and of adequate job opportunities. Dr. AlMalik argues that the reasons for such injustices lie in economic inequalities triggered off by globalization, technology and demographic transformations across the world.

He explained that success in establishing justice at the level of educational institutions truly ensures achieving justice in other fields given that education is the cradle of social upbringing, calling for more efforts to eliminate social-based differences in education, and give girls’ education the utmost importance in such a way as to prepare them to contribute actively to social life, plan adequately for the future to meet the needs of matching education to the jobs of tomorrow and the needs of the labor market.

He also called for enhancing the quality of education, which has become vital for achieving digital justice, given that artificial intelligence applications and transactions digitization are almost necessary for life, a thing that requires spreading digitization sciences in a way that guarantees equality in acquiring and handling them.

ICESCO DG praised the efforts exerted by the Kingdom of Morocco to achieve social justice, as evidenced by the report on the New Development Model, which was prepared following the instructions of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may Allah assist him, aimed at achieving social justice and building a Morocco of equal opportunities, praising the success of Morocco and several ICESCO Member States in facing the social effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr. Al-Malik reaffirmed that ICESCO, within the framework of its new vision and strategic orientations, upholds the values of social justice, especially in the field of education, based on its founding initiative “The Communities We Want,” which establishes a framework for community relations regardless of differences that bear the seeds of social injustice, in a bid to redeem the society of tolerance that characterized the Islamic civilization in its brightest era. He concluded his speech by inviting the participants in the Forum to visit the International Exhibition and Museum of the Prophet’s Seerah and Islamic Civilization, which is currently hosted by ICESCO Headquarters.

Rich discussions and anticipatory outlooks on the future marked the high-level scientific symposium held by Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) on “ChatGPT: Artificial Intelligence Platforms, Opportunities and Challenges.” The Symposium discussed how these chatbots can serve humanity and explored their dangers in relation to security and ethical issues.

The Symposium, which saw high-caliber participation including professors, researchers, academics and specialists in the field of artificial intelligence, kicked off today, Monday, February 20, 2023, with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran. Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General, gave the opening remark where he reaffirmed that ICESCO recognizes the role of AI applications in developing societies and scoring advances in key sectors such as healthcare, education and public safety, calling for using AI’s best practices and addressing its challenges.

The Director-General added that this symposium is part of ICESCO’s efforts to explore AI applications’ opportunities and challenges, especially ChatGPT, as well as their impact on society, noting that ICESCO has launched several programs and projects in this field, notably those pertaining to privacy protection and the fight against cybercrime.

Speaking next, was Dr. Adel Smeda, Expert at ICESCO’s Sector of Science and Technology, highlighted the significance of the Symposium in helping understand the fields of AI application and their impact on societies. For his part, Prof. Idris El-Feghi, a Senior AI Scientist at SomaDetect, Toronto, Canada, gave a presentation on “Chat with the Future: The Rise of ChatGPT in AI Technology” where he traced the evolution of AI and discussed ChatGPT’s features and potential.

In his presentation, Dr. Paul Théron, Director of the French Aerospace Cyber Resilience (Cyb’Air) Research Chair at Thales Group, talked about the ethics and challenges of human interaction with chatGPT, stating that AI applications are limitless and can simulate the human brain in a myriad of fields.

Dr. Salah Baina, Professor at the National School of Computer Science and System Analysis (ENSIAS) at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, talked about how AI technology can evolve and learn, which allows it to continuously develop its performance to become more effective in task execution, thus enabling humans to focus on more important issues.

The Symposium’s session on “ChatGPT: Opportunities and Challenges,” which was moderated by Dr. Mohammed Sharif, Advisor at the Sector of Science and Technology, saw rich discussions on the promising opportunities of this new technology and ways to capitalize on it to achieve sustainable development and improve services. The session also focused on ways to address the challenges of AI technology.

At the close of the Symposium, Dr. Raheel Qamar, Head of the Sector of Science and Technology, presented ICESCO shields to Dr. Idris El-Feghi, Dr. Paul Théron and Dr. Salah Baina.

Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), received Mr. Ömer Faruk Doğan, Ambassador of the Republic of Türkiye to the Kingdom of Morocco, where they explored ways to enhance cooperation between ICESCO and Türkiye in the fields of education, science and culture.

During the meeting, held on Monday (February 20, 2023), at ICESCO Headquarters, in Rabat, Mr. Doğan expressed his sincere gratitude and appreciation to ICESCO Director-General and all the Organization’s staff for their sympathy and condolences on the earthquake that hit Turkey.

For his part, Dr. AlMalik reaffirmed the Organization’s willingness to provide all the necessary support and assistance in its fields of competence.

The meeting discussed the possibility of building fruitful cooperation between ICESCO and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) to implement several humanitarian programs and projects in some of the neediest African countries.

Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General (DG) of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), congratulated Dr. Mohamed Ould Amar, Director-General of the Arab League Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ALECSO), on his re-election to this prestigious position for a second term.

In a telephone call with Dr. Ould Amar following his re-election by ALECSO’s General Conference, Dr. AlMalik hailed this step, noting the distinguished efforts exerted by ALECSO’s DG during his first term and his role in promoting cooperation and partnership between ALECSO and ICESCO.

Dr. AlMalik, on his own and on behalf of all ICESCO staff, wished Dr. Ould Amar every success in further developing ALECSO and leading the Organization in conscientiously fulfilling its mission.

It is worth noting that ALECSO’s General Conference, which held its eighth extraordinary session in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, re-elected Dr. Ould Amar on Saturday, 18 February 2023, as ALECSO Director-General for a second four-year term as of May 18, 2023.

The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) signed an agreement for cooperation and partnership to implement several programmes, projects and activities to protect and build the capacities of migrants, guarantee their rights in education, science and culture, and contribute to addressing the challenges that hinder the governance of migration.

The parties signed the agreement on Thursday, February 16, 2023, at ICESCO Headquarters in Rabat, in the presence of Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director General, Dr. Abdelilah Benarafa, ICESCO Deputy Director General, and Ms. Oguchi Daniels, IOM Deputy Director General of Operations, along with ICESCO Heads of Sectors, Directors of Departments and Experts and a delegation from IOM.

In his address during the signing, Dr. AlMalik expressed his happiness with this agreement and cooperation between ICESCO and IOM, which protects the human rights of vulnerable groups who have been forced to leave their countries, stressing that this goes hand in hand with ICESCO’s vision and strategic orientations, and hoping that this agreement will be a starting point for further development of partnership and cooperation between the two Organizations.

For her part, Ms. Oguchi Daniels reaffirmed that ICESCO and IOM share the same humanitarian goal, which is to promote the rights of migrants, noting that the signing of the agreement enhances the role of the two Organizations in improving the conditions of legal and illegal migrants, and providing the necessary protection for them.

The terms of the cooperation agreement included strengthening the partnership between ICESCO and IOM in areas related to migrants, such as health, education, culture, science, innovation, environment and climate change, integrating migrants, building their capacities and qualifying them, enhancing their opportunities in the labor market and promoting awareness of international charters for safe and legal migration to achieve the goals of sustainable development.

The agreement also stipulates that representatives of the two Organizations will convene and attend meetings and conferences related to areas of common interest, exchange of information, experiences and documents related to their initiatives and programmes, support and implement joint activities and programmes, and grant observer status to IOM to attend ICESCO Executive Council meetings.