ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the practice of Muslim States Parties under the principal United Nations (UN) international human rights treaties. It analyses the reports and discussions of Muslim State Parties before the treaty bodies and projects the general attitude and specific responses of Muslim States to international human rights law. The chapter explores the contentions of Muslim States, which are often ignored in human rights discourse. It identifies the nature and extent of the divide between Islamic law and international human rights standards as perceived by the treaty bodies. The chapter indicates the potential for accommodation or consensus in those areas in which there appears to be conflict, which are more limited in number than might be supposed. It reveals that many of the Muslim States have differed with the treaty bodies mostly on issues of gender equality and the concept of family. Islamic law allows polygamy conditionally, and the practice is permissible under the personal laws of most Muslim States.
