I warmly
congratulate Mr. Deiss on his well-deserved election as
President of the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth
session. I believe his wise and experienced leadership
will bring great success to the Assembly’s proceedings.
I also congratulate Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki for his
laudable contribution as Assembly President in its
sixty-fourth session. I also thank Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon for his tireless service to the United
Nations and to world peace.
Bangladesh is a secular, progressive nation
fulfilling the promise of democracy, good governance,
human rights and the rule of law that were made by my
father — the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the greatest Bengali of all
times — from this podium 36 years ago (see
A/PV.2243). That has also been in consonance with the
objectives of the United Nations, which remains the
last abode where the hopes and aspirations of the
hapless people of the world can be fulfilled.
Bangladesh has also been supporting United
Nations efforts to establish democracy, human rights,
peace and security, as well as taking effective steps to
combat terrorism and external threats worldwide. I,
too, am committed to ensuring this continuity.
Bangladesh has established an international
crimes tribunal to try persons responsible for war
crimes and crimes against humanity, including
genocide, arson and rape, committed during our war of
liberation in 1971 and immediately thereafter. That
action is in accord with the rule of law as reflected in
the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,
which we have ratified and which is aimed at bringing
perpetrators of war crimes, genocide and crimes
against humanity to justice. I believe that only justice
can heal the unforgivable, deadly wrongs of the past.
Here, I sadly recall the evil act of terror on
15 August 1975 that took the life of my father and the
Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, and 18 members of my family, including my
mother, sisters-in-law and my three brothers, one of
whom was only 10 years old. Even I have been a target
of a series of assassination attempts ever since my
return home from exile in 1981.
The most horrendous period was when our
secular democratic party, the Awami League, was in
opposition, from 2001 to 2006. At that time thousands
of our party workers, supporters and followers of the
religious minority who voted for our secular party were
mercilessly killed in systematic terrorist acts of the
BNP/Jamaat-e-Islami alliance Government. The most
audacious act was the dastardly open grenade attack on
21 August 2004 directed against me at a public rally
being held to protest those terrorist attacks and killings.
By the time a dozen grenades had taken their toll,
24 innocent people, including our party’s Secretary for
Women’s Affairs, Mrs. Ivy Rahman — the wife of our
current President — lay dead, and over 500 people
were seriously injured.
There have also been attempts on members of my
family, but never have we bowed before the forces of
terror. As victims of repeated terrorist attacks, my
family and I know this menace well. Clearly, our
rejection of terrorism is total, as is our determination to
eliminate it in all its forms. I want to unequivocally
state that terrorism will not be allowed on the soil of
Bangladesh, and that is precisely why we are a party to
all terrorism-related United Nations conventions and
accord them our full support.
Our firm policy against terrorism and our love for
peace led me to negotiate the 1997 Chittagong Hill
Tracts Peace Accord, thus ending decades of internal
conflict, and a peaceful resolution of the violent
uprising of our paramilitary border forces in 2009. In
the international sphere, our commitment to peace,
which is essential for development, is reflected in our
unflinching support for United Nations peacekeeping
missions. Since 1988 Bangladesh has sent 97,000
troops to 24 countries as part of 32 such missions. In
that period we have lost the precious lives of 92 valiant
soldiers.
Our present troop contribution has made
Bangladesh number one among countries contributing
troops to United Nations peacekeeping operations.
Sadly, despite that involvement, our presence in the
Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO)
15 10-55109
remains negligible, as is our voice in planning
strategies of peacekeeping missions. In all fairness, we
should have proportionate representation in DPKO.
Bangladesh has been adversely affected by global
warming, food insecurity, population displacement and
diminished biodiversity, among other problems, and is
faced with serious threats caused by climate change
and global warming. Although our share of carbon gas
emissions is negligible, we are their worst victim. The
increasing frequency and ferocity of floods, cyclones,
droughts and other natural disasters caused by that
phenomenon continue to create havoc through the lives
lost and the resources destroyed.
Consequently, attaining the Millennium Development
Goals is becoming a more difficult challenge. Climate
migrants are already overcrowding our cities, putting
great stress on our limited infrastructure facilities and
causing social disorder. The situation could become
catastrophic with a one-metre rise in the sea level due
to global warming. That would inundate one quarter of
Bangladesh, impacting 11 per cent of our population
and leading to mass migration.
To meet those challenges, we have adopted a
134-point adaptation and mitigation action plan. Those
points include dredging major rivers to restrict
flooding, recovering cultivable lands for settling
displaced people and increasing capacity to produce
more grain foods. Other plans include afforesting
20 per cent of the land area by 2015, creating a huge
carbon sink; protecting biodiversity; strengthening
coasts and river banks with green belts; modernizing
disaster management with community participation;
developing crop varieties attuned to climate change;
changing agricultural practices; using clean coal
technology; and adopting nuclear power and renewable
energy. Meanwhile, over 14,000 shelters for cyclone
victims have been strategically located to cope with
cyclonic disasters.
Implementing the action plan requires enormous
funds. An immediate measure has been the
establishment of a Climate Change Trust Fund with our
own resources, and a Climate Change Resilience Fund
with assistance from development partners. At the
international level, at the fifteenth Climate Change
Conference of Parties — COP 15 — last year, we
worked hard for a legally binding agreement and for an
international climate fund to assist countries most
vulnerable to climate change. The compromise was the
Copenhagen Accord, which has so far failed to deliver
its promises.
Therefore, I urge the world leaders at the
sixteenth Conference — COP 16 — this year to
conclude, in their wisdom, a positive agreement based
on the Bali Plan of Action, with agreed cuts in
greenhouse gas emissions and real contributions to the
international climate fund. I also urge them to adopt, at
COP 16, measures to ameliorate the adverse impacts of
climate change on the most vulnerable countries, like
Bangladesh, small island developing States like the
Maldives, and landlocked countries like Bhutan and
Nepal, among other least developed countries (LDCs).
The world is yet to recover from the world
economic crisis, and LDCs as well as developed
countries are suffering from reduced exports. Those
crises are due to inequity and injustice resulting from
an unfair international structure, which remains mostly
unchanged. The Bretton Woods institutions must now
accommodate a greater presence of developing
countries, especially least developed countries. While
the Bretton Woods institutions can deal with long-term
development assistance, Bangladesh proposes the
establishment of a special fund under United Nations
auspices to deal exclusively with Special Drawing
Rights and grants. We also propose that all
stakeholders respect country-led ownership of all
development projects, as enshrined in the Accra
Agenda for Action.
The least developed countries surely welcome the
development assistance they receive from developed
countries. They would, however, benefit more through
receiving liberal trade concessions such as duty and
quota-free market access, trade capacity-building, et
cetera. Least developed countries also seek a speedy
end to the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round of
the World Trade Organization trade negotiations and
fulfilment of the commitments by the countries of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development to provide 0.7 per cent of gross national
income to official development assistance, of which
0.2 per cent will be directed at least developed
countries, as affirmed in the Brussels Programme of
Action.
The least developed countries have also been
affected by unemployment at home and by obstacles to
migration for jobs abroad. Since remittances form a
significant part of their gross domestic product,
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economic recovery measures should assure
employment opportunities and all rights of migrant
workers, especially those from least developed
countries.
However, amid the travails of the past years,
Bangladesh has fared reasonably well in maintaining
an annual GDP growth rate of 6 per cent. That was
possible due to our pragmatic policies on food
production, agriculture, rural development, inflation
control and keeping food and essentials prices within
reach of the poor. During our previous Government,
from 1996 to 2001, our policies on food security made
Bangladesh self-sufficient in food, which led to our
winning the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations Ceres Award. This time around, with
the implementation of the national food policy, aimed
at stable prices of fuel, fertilizer, seeds and other farm
inputs, our Government has succeeded again in
ensuring sustained food supply to all.
Our Government’s aim is also to use information
and communications technology (ICT) to accelerate
our socio-economic development. Therefore, we are
implementing ICT Act 2009 and ICT Policy 2009 to
build the requisite infrastructure and extend ICT to
every nook and corner of Bangladesh. Already,
educational institutions, local government institutions
and rural communities are being connected to Internet
services. The process includes an e-centre for rural
communities, connecting 8,500 post offices; a high-
tech park; a network of e governance; and efforts to
strengthen the telecommunication network and satellite
communication.
Our e-services are now focused on improving
agricultural information delivery, market access,
education, health care, early warning systems for
disasters, law and order, and social safety net
payments. Also being implemented is an aggressive
e-leadership programme among members of
Parliament, top policymakers, field administrators and
local administrators. We had already transformed
100 Union Parishads to host e-centres in 2009, and we
are now expediting the process to cover all 4,500
Union Parishads by the end of this year. In short, our
Government is determined to achieve a digital
Bangladesh and transform it into a middle-income
country by 2021, the golden jubilee year of our
nation’s independence.
Simultaneously, our Government’s aim is to
attain 100 per cent primary school enrolment by 2011
and 100 per cent literacy rate by 2014. Our highest
budget allocation goes to education. Tuition and books
are now free for students up to grade 12. Computer and
Internet facilities are being provided free of charge to
schools in order to familiarize students with their use.
To encourage school attendance, we have started
providing lunch to students and cash incentives to
parents.
Though Bangladesh has achieved the Millennium
Development Goal target of gender equality at the
secondary level, our plan is to provide free tuition to
girls up to the undergraduate level. This is because we
firmly believe that women’s equal involvement is vital
for a nation’s development. Gender equity and human
development are our top priority concerns.
Our Government has revived the national
women’s development policy, adopted during our last
tenure of office, that is, 1996 to 2001. At present,
besides the Prime Minister, the leader of the
opposition, the deputy leader and a whip, there are five
other women Cabinet ministers and 45 members of
Parliament in reserved seats. Moreover, 19 women
members of Parliament have been directly elected.
Women also occupy 30 per cent of reserved seats in all
local governments. They are encouraged to participate
in politics and administration, and are recruited in all
professions, including the armed services. They are
also serving in United Nations peacekeeping
operations.
We have made arrangements to provide pensions
to distressed and widowed women, as well as
residential accommodation for both men and women in
old peoples’ homes. Our social safety nets also include
programmes for minorities, the marginalized, the
disabled and the mentally challenged; ashrayan, or
homes for the homeless; the “one home, one farm”
policy to alleviate poverty; and cash and food transfer
programmes.
A new policy provides for the employment of one
member from every poor family. Another new initiative
is the national services policy for providing youth and
women with employment and skills development.
Moreover, research opportunities have led to new
discoveries, particularly with respect to climate-
change-resilient crops. A recent success is genome
sequencing of the jute fibre, ensuring improved quality
17 10-55109
of jute products, a biodegradable option to hazardous
synthetic products.
Health is another area receiving special attention,
with the implementation of the national health policy
adopted during our previous term of office. This policy
provides for the establishment of one community clinic
for every 6,000 people. Our plan is to locate 18,000
such clinics in the first phase, to extend basic health
services into people’s homes. For safe motherhood, a
national strategy for maternal health has been adopted,
with a programme to reduce the infant mortality rate to
15 from the current 54 per 1,000 live births.
Our target is to complete 100 per cent
immunization by the end of our present tenure of
Government. Since my Government assumed office,
the maternal mortality rate has been reduced from 2.9
to 2.6 and infant mortality to such a significant extent
that our successes have been recognized with an award
by the United Nations.
Indeed, despite the recent world food, energy,
economic and climate change crises, Bangladesh, with
the support of United Nations agencies and bilateral
and multilateral partners, has made satisfactory
progress. In fact, our achievement with respect to
MDG 1, on poverty alleviation, MDG 2, on universal
primary education, and MDG 3, on gender equality and
women’s empowerment, are encouraging and on track.
Our Government, through its sincere efforts, intends to
raise 12 million people out of poverty, which would
halve the number of people now living in that sad state
by the MDG deadline of 2015.
Our unflinching commitment to peace finds
expression in our annual flagship Assembly resolution
on the culture of peace (see resolution 64/80). Recent
years have shown an extraordinary record of
sponsorships because of the reference to the
International Mother Language Day. Ever since the
Day was adopted by UNESCO in recognition of the
language martyrs who gave their lives in 1952 for
Bangla, their mother tongue, it has been celebrated
throughout the world with growing fervour every year.
Since Bangla is spoken by nearly 300 million people
worldwide and has a rich heritage in literature, history
and other fields, our Parliament adopted a resolution
requesting the United Nations to declare Bangla as one
of its official languages. I fervently appeal to Member
States for acceptance of our very legitimate request.
Every passing day, the peoples of the world are
being drawn closer together, as one village, with
quickly developing technologies and new challenges
such as climate change, terrorism and economic
interdependence. Indeed, our destiny is now one, as are
our burdens and responsibilities. It is now obvious that
only by mobilizing and optimizing our synergies will it
be possible for us to create a world of shared peace and
prosperity. We have no alternative but to discard our
self-centred, short-sighted interests and work in unison
for a world that our children, and theirs, will inherit, so
that they will remember us with fondness and in
gratitude.
May Bangladesh live forever. Long live the
United Nations.