The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) unanimously adopted Bangladesh’s flagship resolution on the ‘Culture of Peace’, Thursday (9 December).

The Permanent Representative (PR) of Bangladesh to the UN Ambassador Rabab Fatima introduced the resolution at the UNGA. In introducing the resolution, Ambassador Fatima said that the resolution this year assumes greater relevance and urgency as we continue to grapple with the unprecedented, multifaceted challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The resolution was first adopted on 13 September 1999, during the first tenure of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Since then, Bangladesh has been facilitating this resolution at the Assembly every year and also convening a High-level Forum on the Culture of Peace in the General Assembly. This year’s High-Level forum which was held on 07 September 2021, focused on transformative role of the Culture of Peace in promoting inclusion and resilience in the post Covid recovery.

This year, the resolution focused on Covid-era realities, such as, rising inequalities in income, opportunities, access to ICTs, health coverage, social protection, and new challenges in healthcare services and vaccines, deepening gender inequality, and a surge in hate speech, stigmatization, racism and xenophobia, which all stand to jeopardize peace. It also stressed on the need to promote the values of tolerance, non-discrimination, pluralism and freedom of opinion and expression, and also to address hate speech narratives. It called upon the States to promote the values of culture of peace for an inclusive, resilient and sustainable recovery from COVID-19 pandemic.

Bangladesh’s PR said that the resolution of the culture of peace has over time, grown in relevance, and evolved into a dominant theme finding larger footprints and recognition in all major UN discourses. “In the rapidly changing global situation, it has proved to be a useful means to complement UN Charter obligations of maintaining peace in the world”, she added.

This year, 109 countries from a cross-regional representation of the UN Member States       co-sponsored this resolution, showing the broad-based support for the notion of the culture of peace. The continued support to this resolution, facilitated by Bangladesh every year, is a testimony to the huge confidence of international community on Bangladesh as a proponent of global peace.