“The way, shown by Bangabandhu has inspired Bangladesh to work at the global forefront for promoting ‘Culture of Peace” – Ambassadar Masud Bin Momen at UN

UsaNewsOnline.Com, New York : “The way, shown by Bangabandhu has inspired Bangladesh to work at the global forefront for promoting ‘Culture of Peace’ through its leadership role in UN Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding” says Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN Ambassadar Masud Bin Momen 7 September at the general debate on United Nations High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace, held at the General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters. In his address, he recalled the Greatest Bangalee of all times, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who had ingrained a ‘culture of peace’ into our foreign policy fundamentals. Bangabandhu enunciated at the United Nations 42 years ago narratives like “Friendship to all and malice towards none”, “peaceful settlement of disputes”, and “renouncement of the use of force in international relations”.

Mentioning Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s role to promote the ‘Culture of Peace’, Ambassador Masud said, “Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has also upheld Bangabandhu’s ideals as a central tenet of her governance and political ideology. It was during her first tenure that Bangladesh worked with other Member States as the proponent of Culture of Peace in 1997. Since then Bangladesh along with all the stakeholders have been engaged in successive Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace which highlighted the priority areas for the full and effective implementation of this visionary and universally applicable idea”. Since 1997, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted consensus resolutions every year in support of a culture of peace.Ambassador Masud further informed the Assembly that Bangladesh recognizes the importance of peace related education in the school curriculum to introduce peace perspective from the very childhood. Highlighting the fact that seeds of Culture of Peace must be sown in the minds of the young, he said that the efforts should be given at the family level even before school. This lesson from the family then can be amplified into the society, the country and globally as a movement for culture of peace and tolerance. In our fight against terrorism and violent extremism, we have taken a ‘whole-of-society’ approach he added.

The PR also apprised the General Assembly that Bangladesh was facing serious challenges with the recent large influx of people from across the border and the plight of the children, women and elderly in particular that needs urgent attention of international community for the sake of peace and humanity.

The General Debate in the morning was presided over by the President of General Assembly, Peter Thomson and Key Note Speech was delivered by Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams.In the afternoon, a Panel Discussion was held which was moderated by Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, former Assistant Secretary General of UN and former Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN. Panelists included Former Director-General of UNESCO and President, Culture of Peace Foundation Professor Federico Mayor and Special Representative of UN Secretary-General on Violence against Children Dr. Marta Santos Pais and Dr. Rima Salah, Chair of the Early Childhood Peace Consortium (ECPC), an UNICEF entity. NGOs and civil society along with Member States took part in the interactive discussion.