Bangladesh's contribution to establishing a peaceful world

Bangladesh is proud of the UN, and the UN is also proud of Bangladesh. Respect for each other is mutual. The success of the UN is due to the dynamic leadership of its member states.

Bangladesh became the UN's 136th member on September 17, 1974, and ever since, it has been a contributing member of the UN. Bangladesh is a role model in achieving many of the UN goals. The UN may not achieve sustainable peace in the world yet, but in the social, economic, and health sectors, its achievents are significant. Because of the UN and its approach of targeting goals in the area of social, health, economic, and education sectors, for example, it helped in reducing poverty and hunger across nations, increased enrollment in primary schools significantly, infant and maternal death rates has reduced substantially, people below the poverty and hunger level has gone down in many countries, the longevity and comforts of life and living has improved all across nations.

50 years of Bangladesh membership to the UN has many historic achievements. After 7 days of its membership to the UN in 1974, the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman delivered his one and only maiden speech at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on 25th September 1974 and he delivered it in Bangla language, first time in the history of the UN. He in his 18 minutes speech he raised nearly 25 major issues such as reform of international financial architecture, women participation, elimination of hunger and poverty, promoting world peace, ending of subjugation, exploitation and discrimination, ending aparthrid and allowing freedom to nations including Palestine, etc. and these are still relevant in the present day world. My colleague, Mamunur Rashid, and I take pride in unearthing his video speech of 1974 at the UNGA for public view of Bangladeshis in 2012, after nearly 36 years. This shows that where there is will, there is a way.

Following his footsteps, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the longest elected head of a government who attended as the leader of the Bangladesh delegation to the UNGA for 20 times, delivered her UNGA speeches also in Bangla. Not only that, under her leadership, the Language Martyrs Day or our Shaheed Debosh has been recognized as the International Mother Language Day (IMLD) and is being celebrated across nations. Under her leadership, Bngladesh became a brand name in UN Peacekeeping, and it topped the list of UN Peacekeeping contributing countries. It also achieved the MDG goals and received many UN awards and accolades such as MDG-4, South-South Leadership Award, MDG-5 Award, UN 50:50 Award, Champion of the Earth Award, etc. It became a front runner in the UN's 'He for She', Education First, Champion of the Earth, etc. programs. Within the last 50 years, it established Bangladesh Lounge inside the UN main building; thus, it became one of the only 5 countries that received such honor and importance. It also purchased its own mission and PR's residence and thus saved thousands of taxpayers' money. It helped adopt a few historic resolutions: such as (1) Culture of Peace, (2) People's Empowerment, a Peace centric development model, (3) Autism and other Disabilities, (4) UNSC 1325, involvement of women in Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding, etc. Its proactive participation and negotiating skills helped improve SDG goals, the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework, the AAAA Agreement, etc. 'Sustainability, no one is left behind, climate justice and climate migrants, participation of women in peacekeeping, 5Ps', etc. are the hallmark contributions of Bangladesh to the global community and to the UN.

Bangladesh, being a UN member, contributed significantly in all these areas. It may be safely said that the UN achievements are due to the achievements of its member states.

Bangladesh believes in the UN charter, and it has been supporting the UN to resolve issues peacefully through dialogue and discussion. Bangladesh now is a brand name of the UN Peacekeeping. More than 192,000 Bangladeshi peacekeepers, both men and women, served the UN in maintaining peace and stability in post- conflict countries.

Bangladesh is a proud contributor to the UN in achieving its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Out of 48 least developed countries (LDCs), only 15 could barely achieve it, and thus it has become a role model of economic development for the UN. Bangladesh, by increasing participation of its women workforce from around 6% in 2006 to 46% by 2022, has become a "star of women empowerment." It's women peacekeepers by their dedicated and humane service, sacrifice and commitment has earned name and fame for Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government, by resolving major issues with its all neighbors peacefully, has become an imitable UN role model for other countries. She resolved her border demarcation and boundary disputes with India and, more importantly, water sharing disputes through dialogue and discussion. Not a single bullet was fired to achieve these goals. She also resolved her maritime boundary disputes with neighboring India and Myanmar with the support of the UN legal instruments. She developed good rapport with all its neighbors like Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Thailand, India, etc, and it has become a Hub of Connectivity.

The UN desires to have sustainable peace across nations. Unfortunately, unless it's five permanent members, the Victor's of the WWII like the USA, UK, France, Russia, and China agree, there can not be peace in the warring zones. However, in order to reduce tension and the spread of the venom of hatred, those lead to violence, wars and terrorism and tension, Bangladesh has been promoting a philosophy and a vision of peace across nations and it is; it's Culture of Peace (CoP) resolution that has been accepted by all nations with consensus. What is CoP? CoP aims at creating a mindset of tolerance, a mindset of respect towards others irrespective of ethnicity, color, race, or religion. If we can create such a mindset, we hope to achieve sustainable peace across nations that the UN and the greater people of the world want. If such is achieved, there won't be violence, terror and tension, wars, massacre, or genocides. Neither will there be massive exodus of refugees or need for the'Black Life Matters' movement.

Bangladesh contributed to the UN a few resolutions that are historic, such as (1) Culture of Peace, (2) People's Empowerment: a Peace-centric Development Model that demands inclusivity and 'no one should be left behind', (3) Autism and other Disabilities that created public awareness and action program to meet the needs of challenged persons, (4) UNSC resolution 1325 that mandates the UN to engage women in Peacekeeping and peacebuilding, (4) Development is a human right. Along with freedom of speech and opinion, freedom of media, freedom of mobility and congregation, right to food, right to shelter, right to education and healthcare, i.e., development is also a human right.

During 2015, under the auspicious of the UN, especially its 8th Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the UN negotiated historic agreements such as the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) for future we want, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, etc. and Bangladesh as the (1) Chairman of LDCs, (2) Chairman of the UN Second Committee, (3) President of the South-South Cooperation, (4) Vice President & Acting President of the UNGA, (5) Vice Chair of ECOSOC, (6) President of UNICEF, (7) Chair of Peacekeeping Commission, (8) Facilitator of Terrorism Commission, (9) Coordinator of the NAM, (10) Board member of UN-Women, UNDP, UNOPS, UNCHR, (11) Chair of Asian Group, (12) Chair of Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), a forum of 55 climatically vulnerable countries, plus as a negotiator of the SDGs was a key player in these negotiations.

Bangladesh Mission in NY could include all the recommendations in SDGs that it received from the Bangladesh government. In addition, it's suggestion of (1) 5Ps (People, Planet, Peace, Prosperity, Partnership) was included in the Premable, its (2) 'no one is left behind' was included in the SDGs. In fact, we look forward to a pro-people, pro-planet, more peaceful, more prosperous, sustainable world in the future, and such could be achieved through partnership of nations, rich and poor.

In order to achieve the goals and aspirations of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement, it needs mobilization of massive financing. The development partners promised to provide trillions of dollars. For example, to achieve 17 goals and 168 targets of SDGs, it was postulated to have $5 to $11 trillion dollars each year. To achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and to save this planet earth for our future generations, the development partners promised to provide $100 billion dollars a year, and they also committed to reducing global warming below 1.5 degree Celsius. Sadly, they miserably failed to keep their promise. Instead, they are committing more funds for their defense expenditure. As per SIPRI, a Copenhagen based research organization, the global leaders spend nearly $2,300 billion each year for defense. They have built 'weapons of mass destruction' and nuclear arsenals, and only for their upkeep, they are wasting billions of dollars each year. I propose to the leaders of the world that they should at least divert 25% away from defense expenditure to climate change to save this planet earth and also for SDG goals to end the misery of poverty and hunger across nations. Let us hope for a better future. Let us keep our hopes alive. And let us work together in partnership and collaboration to achieve our hopes and dreams for a better world.

Author: Member of Parliament, Former Foreign Minister, and president of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs.