Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Sunday said that Bangladesh as a ‘role model’ of women empowerment remained committed to the global agenda of women, peace and security.
Highlighting the role of women in peacekeeping missions, he also said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina considers “women as agents of peace”.
“The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is working tirelessly to realize the inherent potentials of women and girls for the overall development of the country. As Bangladesh remains in the cusp of graduation into a middle income country, we remain firmly committed to engaging women equally in all spheres of our national life,” he said.
The Foreign Minister was speaking at an event celebrating ‘20 Years of UN Security Council Resolution 1325: Women, Peace and Security’.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UN Women jointly organised the event.
Foreign Secretary Ambassador Masud Bin Momen was also present.
“I am happy to join the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the landmark UN Security Council Resolution 1325 that subsequently shaped the “Women Peace and Security agenda” of the UN system. For the last 20 years, the resolution has guided us in our endeavor to incorporate the role and participation of women in nation-building efforts, development and peace process across the globe,” the foreign minister said.
“The violence and trauma that our women suffered during our war of liberation in 1971 have a lasting footprint in our national psychology. “The painful experience demonstrated how women suffer during conflicts. It also taught us how women can contribute in the recovery and reconstruction in the post conflict situation. Recognizing the important role and contribution of our women “war heroes,” immediate after the independence the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman included women in the rebuilding of the country. From that perspective we could establish a clear co-relation between women, peace and security,” he said.
“As has already been highlighted, Bangladesh played a pivotal role in adoption of the historic resolution 1325. However, on this special occasion of the 1325’s 20th anniversary I would like to elaborate that historic role for all of us to be proud of Bangladesh’s global leadership and to record the pioneering role of Bangladesh at the United Nations,” he said.
“The unexplained silence of the Security Council for 55 long years on women’s positive role was broken forever due to Bangladesh’s forward-looking and determined initiative in spite of many obstacles during negotiations,” he said.
“The key focus of 1325 is that women – equal half of humanity – bring in a new breadth, quality and balance of vision to our common effort to move away from the cult of war towards the culture of peace.
“Empowered women bring important and different skills and perspectives to the policy making table. Women’s equality makes our planet safe and secure.
“Adoption of 1325 opened a much-awaited door of opportunity for women who have shown time and again that they bring a qualitative improvement in structuring peace and in post-conflict architecture.
“Since then women, Peace and Security agenda has become our national priority,” the foreign minister said.
“We have pioneered in women’s peacekeeping. We sent over 1900 women in various Peacekeeping missions including in difficult ones. Currently 139 women military officers and 183 women police officers are serving as the blue helmets. Bangladesh has also been sending women corrections and judicial officers to the UN peace missions. Recently 04 of our women judges have been selected for deployment in UNMISS & UNSOM.”
“These statistics are not just numbers. They signify our strong confidence in the ability of women and the viability of the policy vision of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. We consider women as agents of peace. Their peacemaking role has been facilitated by our progressive laws & regulations, and our Government’s affirmative actions towards their empowerment.”
“We support the UN’s Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy and the Secretary General’s efforts towards ensuring gender parity in senior appointments.
“However, there is clearly much more to be done, not only in enhancing the number of women peacekeepers on the ground, but also women in leadership positions; in peacekeeping as well as in peace negotiations. Also existing geographical imbalance needs to be addressed urgently in a transparent manner,” he said.
“Bangladesh is doing its part. We are championing the A4P WPS agenda along with other partners both in peacekeeping and peace building. Apart from leading WPS discourses in the General Assembly’s Special Committee on Peacekeeping operations, we have also been advocating for internalization of WPS in peace building activities and also implementing the gender strategy action plan of the PBC.
“As part of the Group of Friends on WPS Bangladesh regularly contributes to relevant Security Council open debates. We have already taken measures to deploy more women officers to fulfill the target set by the UN of 15% Staff Officers/Military Observers in UN peacekeeping missions,” he said.
