Bangladesh

This year is very special to Bangladesh at the United Nations. It is the twenty-fifth anniversary of Bangladesh’s admission to this “Parliament of Man”. I bring greetings from the people of Bangladesh. It is gratifying to us that on this twenty-fifth anniversary, we have you, Sir, presiding over the General Assembly. You are a freedom fighter. You lead a country which was liberated in recent times, and yet, in its short membership in the United Nations, it has contributed so much to the work of the Organization. We convey our sincere appreciation to Foreign Minister Didier Opertti of Uruguay, our President during the last session, for his excellent work. I would also like to welcome the three new members of the General Assembly: Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga. We sense their joy and excitement, as we experienced 25 years ago. I convey our sincerest thanks and gratitude to the Secretary-General and to all Member States for their support and assistance in helping us overcome the aftermath of the disastrous floods that hit our country last year. The magnitude of the disaster was unprecedented in our history. The support of the international community was a source of inspiration and encouragement to our people in facing the challenges of rehabilitation and reconstruction. I stand here today with pride and satisfaction. The Father of our Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, 25 years ago delivered our first address to the General Assembly as head of Government of the sovereign and independent State of Bangladesh. His message on that day expressed the nation’s gratitude to the international community for standing by our people in the darkest days of oppression; to apprise the international community of our great struggle for freedom and self- determination; to articulate to the world our faith in democracy, justice, freedom and human rights; and to spell out the basic elements of our foreign policy. Despite the political upheavals in the country since then, none ventured to alter the foreign policy guidelines laid down by the Father of our Nation. We were thus able to contribute positively to the United Nations by serving in several important commissions and executive bodies in its system and participating actively in United Nations peacekeeping operations. We were privileged to preside over the forty-first session of the General Assembly and to serve one term in a non-permanent seat on the Security Council. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman carried the torch of an indomitable people to the United Nations when he stood at this very rostrum before the General Assembly in 1974 and said, “The noble ideals enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations are the very ideals for which millions of our people have made the supreme sacrifice. I know that the souls of our martyrs join us in pledging that the Bangalee nation fully commits itself to the building of a world order in which the aspiration of all men for peace and justice will be realized.” (A/PV.2243, para. 2) Twenty-five years later, I am here to renew that pledge. In these 25 years we have seen the partnership between Bangladesh and the United Nations mature. From our early reconstruction needs for national development to steps for empowering people and establishing social justice, the United Nations has been with us. We have also been able to lend support to the strengthening of the Organization and have contributed in its efforts to eradicate poverty and disease, maintain peace and security and support the fulfilment of the rights of the oppressed and the subjugated. We sincerely hope that the development of cooperation between Bangladesh and the 14 United Nations agencies in our country will be expanded and strengthened in future years. Bangladesh has noted with great concern the recent decline in commitments by donor countries to the United Nations development system, and to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in particular. Bangladesh attaches great value to multilateral assistance as a reliable and trusted source of impartial expertise and urges donor countries to meet the commitments made in the Executive Board of UNDP for the multi-year funding framework, enabling countries such as Bangladesh to plan development programmes accordingly. Recalling the recent statement of the G-8 in Cologne, Bangladesh wishes to note with pride that it is already utilizing over half of the country funds available from UNDP for programmes relating to improving governance, which are helping us to address fundamental constraints to faster development. Now is the time for donors to recognize the commitment we have made and the success we have achieved by increasing resources for these valuable programmes. Within months of his historic address to this world body in 1974, my father and the Father of our Nation, along with my mother and three brothers, the youngest one being 10 years of age, were brutally assassinated by a group of murderous and misguided military officers on 15 August 1975. Amongst those killed were my uncles, my two sisters-in-law, two cousins and a host of other relatives. My sister and I were the only survivors, as we were out of the country at the time. Coups and counter-coups followed one another at regular intervals, leading to military rule of one sort or another. I was forced to live in exile from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. I began to struggle from exile against the autocratic rule. After coming home in 1991, I stepped up that struggle for the restoration of people’s right to vote and their right to freedom and to food. I was harassed and arrested by the authoritarian regimes, and several attempts were made on my life. But nothing could deter me either from my path or from my goal, the restoration of democracy. The movement grew in strength, and finally victory was on the side of the people. Today democracy has taken firm root in Bangladesh for all time to come. We have strengthened the parliamentary system. Prime Minister’s question time has been introduced. The session is televised and broadcast live. To institutionalize democracy and make it sustainable, we have ensured the people’s right to vote by introducing the institution of a non-party, caretaker Government to be formed three months before each election. My struggle now is to guarantee the people’s right to food; in other words, economic emancipation to a sustainable livelihood. I am driven by a desire to create a just environment, not only for my own people but also for all of humankind. The creation of the United Nations was aimed at sparing the world from the scourge of another world war and to ensure that human beings are guaranteed their basic rights. During its more than 50 years of existence, it has stood the test of time. National and internationally, we have taken peace and development as two vital and integrally linked objectives. We have taken steps to foster peace regionally. Immediately after it came into office, my Government took the initiative to solve the Ganges water-sharing issue with our neighbour, India. We solved this long outstanding issue successfully in December 1996. I visited India and Pakistan following the nuclear tests in South Asia and urged that we all must do our utmost to deserve peace in our region and devote our limited resources to economic and social development. An accord was concluded in December 1997 between the Government and representatives of the tribal people living in the south-eastern part of our country without third-party mediation. The accord brought peace after more than two decades to the strife-torn area of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Peace now reigns in the area: the former insurgents surrendered their arms and returned to peaceful lives; all 63,000 refugees from across the border have returned; and there have been no incidents of violence there since the signing of the accord. We have no illusions that the key to our development and progress is directly linked to investment in our people. Our efforts are now being directed towards transforming our vast human resources into a productive force. Our development programmes are targeted on rapid poverty alleviation. We have adopted policies to strengthen the socio-economic infrastructure of our country. We have given priority to the various social sectors, including education, health care, poverty alleviation and population growth control, and we have allocated more than 30 per cent of the budget to the social sectors with the objective of poverty alleviation, empowerment and human development. Our programmes include shelter and sustainable livelihood through the Ashrayon programme, housing for the poor, health care, education for the poor, microcredit, old-age pensions, income transfers to destitute women and targeted poverty alleviation programmes. This effort towards the economic emancipation of the people is our preoccupation now: we 15 want to build the golden Bengal dreamt of by the father of our nation. We have adopted specific policies to ensure equality between women and men. We have promulgated laws and set up institutional mechanisms to promote women’s rights, to ensure that they have choices and opportunities, that victims are given redress and that stern punishments are meted out to rapists for their deeds. The effectiveness of microcredit in empowering women has been phenomenal. We have also brought women into decision-making at all levels. During the last local Government elections, more than 14,000 women were elected to office. In our foreign policy, we adhere to the principle of friendship towards all. It is a constitutional requirement to base our international relations on the principles set out in the United Nations Charter. How do we address the critical issues of the new millennium? We consider peace to be a fundamental human right to be attained, sustained, promoted and carried forward at all times. Without development there can be no peace, and without cooperation, no development. There is no option, then, but to have genuine cooperation between the developed and the developing countries for the eradication of poverty and the fulfilment of the people’s aspirations for development. Bangladesh has been the coordinator of the least developed countries for the last two decades. We believe strongly that special measures should be taken by the international community to help these countries in their efforts to develop and to participate fully in the global economy. Human rights is the essence of peace. Unless we ensure that citizens live a life of dignity, where their rights are secure, we cannot have a just and peaceful world. This is equally true for communities and nations. In our region, we have nurtured the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which has taken many initiatives to improve the lives of the peoples of the region. At the subregional level, we are cooperating with Bhutan, Nepal and India in the South Asian Development Quadrangle. The United Nations is the only universal body that deals with all fields of human activity. It has been a catalyst in many initiatives and has bettered the lives of people around the world. In the 1990s the United Nations convened a series of global conferences to address major challenges facing humankind. They addressed problems which were beyond the capacity of individual countries to solve and which called for wide-ranging international cooperation. I believe that the international community should ensure coordinated and integrated follow-up for effective and full implementation of the decisions of those conferences. In Bangladesh, we have taken concrete measures in this regard. We need to ensure that the United Nations can continue to meet the evolving needs of humankind in the next century. For that, we must have an effective and efficient United Nations. I am happy that Bangladesh has been at the forefront of the adoption of these steps at the United Nations. In this regard, I would like to put on record our great appreciation of the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan. He has made remarkable achievements in the short time that he has been at the helm of the United Nations. He fully deserves our wholehearted praise and support. There is no denying the fact that the world needs the United Nations. But we must remember that it is equally true that the United Nations needs the world. All countries must do their best to fulfil their commitments to make the Organization strong and durable. This has been the endeavour of Bangladesh for the last 25 years. May Bangladesh live forever. Long live the United Nations.