Our meetings in Manila are over. All the brothers I met send greetings to all GIMDES members, especially our GIMDES President Hüseyin Kâmi BÜYÜKÖZER.
In summary, we participated in the World Halal Forum organized by IDCP on Monday, November 14th. This all-day meeting was attended by local administrators, representatives of Filipino companies that have obtained Halal certification, many delegates from other countries and WHC members. They gave us the opportunity to make a short speech at this well-organized meeting. In our short speech, we tried to express that besides the known issues in Halal certification, especially Islamic values should be taken into account and that institutions can only be superior to each other thanks to their taqwa.
On November 15, the WHC general assembly was held. In this meeting, which was attended by most of the members, the problems encountered especially in Halal Certification were expressed and how to take precautions and the work to be done were discussed.
At the beginning of the meeting, the ‘Address to Members’ letter of GIMDES President and WHC Patron Hüseyin Kâmi BÜYÜKÖZER was read aloud. The same letter was sent to the members who could not attend, via e-mail and other methods.
It was decided to create a system to combat the contention and competition between Halal institutions, which is the most troublesome issue today, and profit-oriented institutions instead of serving Islam. For this purpose, the Integrity and Ethics Committee was formed within the WHC. 5 members were elected to this committee and they were instructed to take office immediately. The committee will prepare a road map within 1 month and submit it to the board of directors.
An election was held to replace a vacant member in the board of directors and Mahmoud Tatari from Halal Control was elected as a member.
The actions to be taken for the members who have not attended the activities organized by the WHC without an excuse for a long time were discussed and it was decided to terminate the membership of the members who did not attend two consecutive meetings without excuse and did not pay membership dues. For this purpose, the status of the current members will be examined and they will first be warned in writing. From 2023, various sanctions will be imposed on those who do not attend physical or online meetings.
Emphasis will be placed on efforts to increase public awareness of the WHC. To do this, members will engage with local authorities in their area.
In addition, various problems encountered in Halal certification issues will be announced to the WHC management by the relevant member and early measures will be taken.
The Charter of the WHC will be examined and the issues that are old and need to be amended will be identified and presented to the management and the necessary changes will be discussed in the next general assembly.
Other issues such as ISO, the status of certificates of non-member institutions, the status of critical products such as gelatin were also addressed. We have spoken out loudly that gelatin is definitely an object to be avoided and should not be used regardless of whether its source is Pakistan or any other Muslim country.
It was proposed that the 2023 general assembly of the WHC be held in Istanbul and was accepted without objection. It was said that the end of October or the beginning of November would be easier for everyone in terms of travel, and it was requested to take these dates into account in the planning.
Since 1 day was not enough, it was decided that the Annual General Assembly meetings would be held as 2 or 3 days from now on.
In addition, at the end of the meetings, all members asked for 2-3 days of small trips to be arranged. For next year; They said that they preferred cities such as Çanakkale and Bursa.
In order to ensure that the meetings are efficient and that there is no loss of time due to traffic etc., it was especially requested that all kinds of meetings, conferences and other activities (food, etc.) to be held in the hotel to be accommodated.
The meeting was ended with the prayer that the decisions taken and the meeting held would be instrumental for good.
Zafer GEDİKLİ
