Women, Peace & Security
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday called upon the UN members to reaffirm their political and financial commitment towards building sustainable global peace and security.
“I call upon all the members of the United Nations to reiterate our political and financial commitments towards peace-building for the sake of sustainable international peace and security,” she said.
Hasina made the remarks while delivering her speech as the chair at a high-level meeting on ‘Peace Building: Peace Building- A way forward towards sustainable peace and security' at the North Lawn Building of the UN Headquarters.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Gambian President Michael Chilufya, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Timur Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao spoke on the occasion.
Hasina mentioned that the lessons learnt in the field and in the Peace Building Commission (PBC) of the UN, proved that though the role of the international community in advancing national peace-building goals is essential, the primary responsibility for establishing sustainable peace and security lies with the national authorities themselves.
“I believe, therefore, that we should support national ownership as a core principle at the heart of post conflict peace-building for sustainable peace,” she said.
In this connection, she put emphasis on promoting inclusive political processes in post-conflict countries.
Hasina also underscored the need for reenergising financial and political commitment on resource mobilisation, national capacity and institution building; mobilising efforts to be more coordinated in delivering most efficient and cost-effective support to post-conflict societies.
The Prime Minister pointed out that lack of political cohesion, shattered institutions, absence of the rule of law and justice, marginalisation of certain communities from mainstream political and development process are behind the conflicts. “It affects negatively the women, children and the minorities.”
She said that these challenges made it crucial for the PBC and all stakeholders to exert collective efforts in engaging more vigorously for sustainable peace and security.
Stressing appropriate follow-up efforts by the international community, the Prime Minister mentioned that the success of UN mediation and cost-effective multidimensional peacekeeping operations has sadly not been complemented due to this.
“We should learn from our past failures to build on the success of mediation and peacekeeping efforts,” she opined.
Hasina also put emphasis on strengthening coordination and coherence of bilateral, regional and multilateral engagements of the PBC and enhancing South-South and Triangular Cooperation for sustainable peace.
Stating that at present almost 1.5 billion people are still living in violent conflict-ridden countries, she mentioned that the World Development Report 2011 states that no one of the low-income countries emerging from or affected by conflict has achieved a single MDG.
Hasina mentioned that Bangladesh has been a strong advocate of peace building at the United Nations. “We’ve been a founder member of the Peace Building Commission. From its inception we’ve been a member and an active policymaker, contributing to its evolution.”
She said that the Constitution of Bangladesh apart from guaranteeing commitment to peaceful settlement of disputes also stipulates the rights of people to determine their own social, economic and political systems in ways of their choice.
“While our peacekeepers keep and build peace in post-conflict states, we also aim at transition from war to peace there,” she added.
Hasina thanked all for electing Bangladesh as Chair of the PBC and took it as recognition of our commitment to the PBC. “Despite our constraints as an LDC, we’ve continued to demonstrate our commitment to the Peace Building Fund with its annual contributions.”
The Prime Minister informed that as President of the PBC, Bangladesh has played its role in crafting peace-building policies with focus on the principle of national ownership, capacity building, women empowerment, predictable funding, development activities, basic health and education, youth employment, etc.
She mentioned that at present, 10 out of 16 UN missions are multidimensional and mandated by the Security Council to carry out a broad range of work.
In most of them, Bangladesh peacekeepers are contributing significantly by delivering scaled-up services in health, education, business development and livelihood support.
“Our military, police and civilians are supporting implementation of the comprehensive peace agreements and establishment of foundations for sustainable peace, and legitimate governments.”
They work with other UN agencies in areas of development, human rights, humanitarian activities with IFIs and national counterparts under the Integrated Strategic Framework, she added.
Hasina said that Bangladesh’s experience as peacekeepers before the establishment of PBC made it to realise that women could bring qualitative change in establishing peace in post-conflict countries.
The premier said Bangladesh thus became a pioneer in the adoption on Security Council 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
She also said that as a nation committed to peaceful settlement of disputes, and sustainable peace and development, Bangladesh has stood in the frontline of global peacekeeping and peace-building in conflict ridden and post-conflict societies.
From 1988 till now, Bangladesh participated in 37 UN peacekeeping missions with 113,181 peacekeepers, 118 of whom died and 125 injured while on duty.
In the post-cold war period of the 90s, half of the emerging countries lapsed into violence within a few years. To help them built solid foundations for sustainable peace and development, the Peace Building Commission (PBC) was established.
Its institutional structure was designed to allow all stakeholders, within and outside the United Nations, to contribute to its noble mission of achieving sustainable peace in the post conflict countries through coordinated and coherent development activities.
Sheikh Hasina