THE idea of the constitution of a human rights commission of its own by the Organisation of Islamic Conference is, indeed, welcome news. Despite the glorious principles of human dignity and rights under an Islamic system that Muslims never tire of articulating before the world, it is a thousand pity that there would hardly be a Muslim country that could boast of a clean human rights record. Rather, in comparison with other civilised societies theirs has been of a markedly miserable standard. The OIC Secretary General, Prof. Ekneleddin Ihsanuglo, who chaired the first meeting of the OIC's Inter-governmental Group of Experts at Jeddah on Saturday hinted at the formation of such a commission and underscored the point that "human rights and man's dignity are an integral part of Islam and core components of Islamic culture and heritage." The Muslim world cannot take shelter behind the recent recourse to the usurpation of human rights by the various Western governments, the US in particular, and continue to adopt practices that are no longer acceptable to the international community. The Western nations, which used to claim in the past to have a reasonably good human rights record, have been badly defaulting on this score since 9/11. But their justification of the prevailing political and security atmosphere in the world for putting certain limits on the exercise of the citizens' rights to certain freedoms does not hold water. They are also in the process of reviewing their positions. Human rights are so sacrosanct in the eyes of Islam that under no circumstances should there be an attempt at violating them. Besides, in the ultimate analysis, their observance proves far more desirable in terms of results than their violation.