foreign-affairs
Discrimination, sexual abuse have no place in Peacekeeping Missions, Dhaka says
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen today said Bangladesh looks forward to explore effective strategies to ensure that all peacekeepers, irrespective of gender, can thrive in a safe and supportive environment.
“Discrimination and sexual abuse have no place in our Peacekeeping Missions, and we must collectively strive to eradicate such occurrences,” he said.
The Foreign Secretary was speaking at the opening session of the preparatory meeting of the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial.
He said their collective presence here today is a testament to Bangladesh’s commitment to strengthening peacekeeping efforts.
“I firmly believe that this preparatory meeting will set the stage for the upcoming UN Peacekeeping Ministerial Meeting, which would need to take into account emerging concerns of the member states about the security situations in some missions,” Masud Bin Momen said.
Read: US Embassy expresses sadness over attack on 3 Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers in Mali
The commitments and recommendations that emerge from the discussions will constructively shape the future of peacekeeping, inspire all member states, and propel them towards a more inclusive, gender-responsive, and effective peacekeeping architecture, he said.
“Let us work together to create a more inclusive and equitable peacekeeping environment, where the voices and contributions of women are recognised, valued, and celebrated,” the foreign secretary said.
The theme of the preparatory meeting, ‘Women in UN Peacekeeping,’ resonates deeply with the values and principles that Bangladesh holds dear, he observed.
As a leading Troop and Police Contributing Country to UN Peacekeeping Missions, the foreign secretary said, Bangladesh remains firmly committed to the principles and objectives of the United Nations in promoting peace, security, and gender equality. “We believe that, gender equality and empowerment of women are crucial for sustainable peace and development.”
Read: 3 Bangladeshi peacekeepers injured in IED blast in Mali
United Nations Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix and Under Secretary General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance Catherine Pollard joined the two-day meeting.
“We will discuss how we can increase the number of women in peacekeeping and ensure they access all roles within our missions. It requires everyone’s commitment, including member states and partners,” the foreign secretary said.
USG Lacroix will join the site visit to Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operation Training (BIPSOT) in Gazipur with other delegates on the second day of the conference.
Read more: US lauds Bangladeshi peacekeepers' role
UN USG for Peace Operations Lacroix in Dhaka; will meet PM
United Nations Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix arrived in Dhaka on Saturday.
Director General (UN), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director General (Ops and Planning), Armed Forces Division, and Deputy Inspector General (Operations) of Bangladesh Police, welcomed him at the airport.
"We will discuss how we can increase the number of women in peacekeeping and ensure they access all roles within our missions. It requires everyone's commitment, including Member States and partners," he said upon arrival.
Lacroix is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam during his visit.
Read: UN USG for Peace Operations Lacroix to attend 1st peacekeeping ministerial preparatory meeting in Dhaka
He also has scheduled meetings with the Chief of Services (Army, Navy, Airforce) and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The UN Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations holds an important portfolio providing political and executive direction to UN peacekeeping operations around the world and maintaining coordination with the UN Security Council, troop and financial contributors, and parties to the conflict, in the implementation of UN Security Council mandates and the deployment of military capabilities in the UN missions.
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UN Under-Secretary General for Peace Operations Lacroix and Under Secretary General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance Catherine Pollard will grace the opening and closing ceremonies of the two-day preparatory conference of the UN peacekeeping ministerial in Dhaka on June 25-26.
Lacroix will also speak as a guest speaker in the PrepCon session on ‘Gender-Responsive Leadership and Inclusive Teams’.
USG Lacroix will join the site visit to Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operation Training (BIPSOT) in Gazipur with other delegates on the second day of the conference.
He will leave Dhaka on June 27.
Visiting UN under-secretary general meets speaker
Ms. Catherine Pollard, the United Nations Under Secretary General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, paid a courtesy call on the Speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury at her office here on Saturday.
During the meeting, they discussed different issues particularly women's empowerment, gender equality, Rohingya issue, parliamentary session and participation of women in peace missions, said a press release.
Read: UN resident coordinator Gwyn Lewis meets Speaker Dr Shirin
The speaker said the constitution of Bangladesh mentioned the equal rights of men and women. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has achieved commendable progress in women empowerment and ensuring gender equality.
"Through the special initiative of Sheikh Hasina , a house is being provided in the joint name of both the husband and wife of a family under the Asharyan Project, as a result of which the rights of women are protected," she added.
Canadian High Commissioner joins graduation ceremony of CISB
The Canadian International School Bangladesh (CISB) celebrated its Graduation Ceremony for grade 12 students recently.
The ceremony was held in a Dhaka hotel.
High Commissioner of Canada to Bangladesh Dr Lilly Nicholls graced the occasion as the chief guest along with other high officials.
Bengali New Year celebration in Canada's Ottawa
Chairman, Mohammad Kamal Uddin; CEO and Vice Chairperson of CISB, Begum Shirin Jahan; and Principal Janice Smales were present at the event.
CISB extended their heartfelt congratulations to the graduating students for their remarkable achievements throughout their academic journey.
This graduation ceremony marked a significant milestone in their lives and symbolised the successful completion of their high school education, said a media release on Saturday.
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The event was packed with inspiring speeches, heartfelt moments, and well-deserved recognition of CISB's talented students. It was a joyous celebration of their accomplishments and a reflection of the exceptional education provided by CISB.
UN USG for Peace Operations Lacroix to attend 1st peacekeeping ministerial preparatory meeting in Dhaka
UN Under Secretary General (USG) for Department of Peace Operations Jean Pierre Lacroix will attend the first UN peacekeeping ministerial preparatory meeting to be held in Dhaka on June 25-26.
"This is the first of a series of four themed conferences ahead of the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial, to be held in Accra, Ghana, on 5 and 6 December 2023," said Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
The theme of the preparatory meeting, which is co-hosted by Bangladesh, Canada, and Uruguay, is “Women in UN Peacekeeping”.
The two-day meeting will welcome representatives from troop and police contributing countries, and UN peacekeeping experts to discuss progress, challenges and good practices to promote women’s meaningful participation in UN peacekeeping and to foster gender-responsive leadership.
He will be attending the meeting at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, officials said.
Read: First WHO guidance on snakebite treatments published
After Bangladesh, Lacroix will travel to Nepal and Bhutan from 27 June to 3 July.
He will discuss the countries’ ongoing support to UN peace operations, including within the framework of the Peacekeeping Ministerial.
The United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial is an important opportunity for Member States to come together in a collective effort to strengthen the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations and their impact on the communities they serve, according to UN.
In 2023, the Peacekeeping Ministerial will be hosted by Ghana in Accra on 5-6 December.
It is the latest in a series of meetings held at the Head of State, Government, or Ministerial level since 2014, including in Seoul in 2021.
The discussions will focus on concrete measures to improve operations in line with ongoing reform through Action for Peacekeeping, A4P+ and the Digital Transformation Strategy.
With missions facing greater challenges than ever, the Ministerial will focus on protection of civilians, strategic communications (including addressing mis-disinformation and hate speech), safety and security, the mental health of peacekeepers, and women in peacekeeping as outlined in the Concept Note.
Bangladesh is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping operations.
The South Asian nation first deployed uniformed personnel to serve with the Organization in 1988 when they were deployed to help monitor the armistice between Iran and Iraq.
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Over the past three decades, the contributions of these brave men and women in the countries in which they serve have been immense, according to UN.
Meanwhile, Catherine Pollard, UN Under-Secretary-General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, arrived in Dhaka on Friday.
Resident Representative, UNDP Bangladesh Stefan Liller welcomed her on behalf of the UN office in Bangladesh.
The two top UN officials are scheduled to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during the visit.
First WHO guidance on snakebite treatments published
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published the first in a series of WHO public-benefit target product profiles (TPPs) for snakebite treatments, in order to improve the quality of antivenoms available in the market. This is the first-ever guidance to improve the quality of such products. The TPP is a document that provides regulators, manufacturers, researchers and procurement agencies with essential information about the minimum and optimum characteristics of specific products for specific use cases, in this case, antivenoms used for the treatment of snakebites caused by various types of sub-Saharan African snakes. TPPs help to ensure that products are designed and manufactured to meet the match the clinical needs of populations at risk, and are “fit-for-use” – e.g., are safe, effective and adapted to the use environment,
A high-quality antivenom provides the best available treatment for approximately 5.4 million people who are bitten by snakes each year. Safe, effective antivenoms could prevent many of the 83 000-138 000 deaths caused by snakebites and reduce the severity of serious disabilities that impact many thousands more victims.
“Access to high quality, safe and effective antivenom is an issue of equity and this critical work brings us one step forward in being able to make this a reality” Dr Socé Fall, Director of the WHO Global NTD Programme.
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Antivenoms have been made for some 130 years and yet, remarkably, there has been until now, no guidance on how to design and manufacture a product of high quality that meets the correct requirements for safety, effectiveness, and functional use.
Four TPPs for different types of conventional animal plasma-derived antivenomsThe first of these is for products that are intended for widespread use throughout sub-Saharan Africa, for treatment of snakebites irrespective of the species of snake causing the bite. The second is for treatment of bites from a single species (or group) of snake(s). Products in both these categories are currently on the market.
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The other two categories are for products that do not yet exist in sub-Saharan Africa, but evidence from other parts of the world suggests that if developed they may have a useful role to play. One of these new product types is for antivenoms where the snakebite mainly causes a syndrome dominated by neurotoxic effects, while the other is intended for non-neurotoxic snakebite syndromes that involve effects on blood clotting or tissue necrosis without paralytic effects.
These TPPs, are intended to provide guidance to manufacturers, regulators, procurement agencies, clinicians and researchers and will contribute to improvements in the quality, safety and effectiveness of antivenoms and thus better treatment of snakebites.
Climate change: Foreign Minister highlights adaptation efforts
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has highlighted Bangladesh’s efforts to transform its climate vulnerability into appropriate tools for resilience and prosperity.
He offered to share Bangladesh’s experiences with climate adaptation, including for climate-resilient housing for those affected and displaced due to climate change.
Read: Climate-vulnerable countries reiterate calls for debt sustainability, climate prosperity
The Foreign Minister made the concluding remarks at a CVF-V20 meeting on the sidelines of the Summit on A New Global Financing Pact being held in Paris on 22-23 June 2023.
Momen reaffirmed support for the V20 Accra-Marrakech Agenda on climate financing towards promoting nature-positive development in developing countries.
Read: Bangladeshi farmers need to use fertilizer and water efficiently: Experts
He stressed the CVF position on concrete deliverables on climate financing to live up to the Paris Agreement and related commitments.
Climate-vulnerable countries reiterate calls for debt sustainability, climate prosperity
The Vulnerable Twenty Group of Finance Ministers (V20) of the CVF, on Friday launched a coalition of developing countries to triangulate the multilateral system, private sector (including credit rating agencies) and philanthropies, for win-win solutions on climate, debt, and development.Leaders from the 58 countries of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) –– including Ghana’s president and CVF chair, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Barbados prime minister and summit co-host Mia Mottley, Kenya’s president William Ruto, and Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro –– representing developing countries, led the overwhelming call for the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact to deliver in not only reforming, but also transforming the international financial system towards debt sustainability and climate prosperity.Building on the V20 roadmap for its Accra-Marrakech Agenda (A2M) launched April 2023, the statement of the ‘Emergency Coalition for Debt Sustainability and Climate Prosperity’ focuses on aligning the sovereign debt architecture with development and climate goals.
Read: State Minister Faridul visits Bangladeshi hajj pilgrims in KSAThis will require greater ambition and cooperation among the G20, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), other global and regional development finance institutions, credit rating agencies, the private sector, and other stakeholders.“From Accra and Bridgetown and now from Paris, the Climate Vulnerable Forum will keep working to not only make debt work for climate action, but also transform the international and development financial systems, secure a global deal on carbon financing, and revolutionize risk management throughout Nairobi and Marrakech and Dubai,” said Ghana’s president and CVF chair Nana Akufo-Addo.He was referring to the Africa Climate Action Summit to be held in Kenya in September, the IMF and WBG annual meetings in Morocco in October, and the UN climate conference in the United Arab Emirates in December.
Read: Bangladeshi farmers need to use fertilizer and water efficiently: Experts “Debt distress and record highs in the cost of capital threaten to reverse development gains and jeopardize our ability to finance climate and development goals for the future. To avoid another lost decade of stalled restructurings and high debt service pressure, the global financial architecture needs to urgently evolve,” said Ghana’s finance minister and V20 chair Ken Ofori-Atta.Ghana, Sri Lanka, and Colombia were among the 40 out of then-55 V20 countries that were in debt distress in the middle of last year.The V20’s total debt stock is one-fifth of all developing country debt, according to the September 2022 debt review it co-published with the Boston University Global Development Policy Center.“We hope other developing countries join the Emergency Coalition, and that the G20 and international financial institutions work with us through the Common Framework and the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable, among other fora, so we can save ourselves from debt distress and worsening climate impacts,” Minister Ofori-Atta added.The Emergency Coalition for Debt Sustainability and Climate Prosperity is led by the V20 and co-organized by a group of independent think-tanks and universities including the Finance for Development Lab; the Task Force on Climate, Development, and the IMF; and Debt Relief for Green and Inclusive Recovery.
Read: Palestinian Ambassador says Nur met with Israel's Mossad 3 timesThe V20 membership stands at 58 countries representing some 1.5 billion people from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chad, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Palau, Palestine**, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Senegal, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Viet Nam, and Yemen.
US to host ministerial meeting on July 7 to launch global coalition to address synthetic drug threats
The United States will convene and host a virtual ministerial meeting on July 7, bringing together dozens of countries and international organizations, to launch a global coalition to address synthetic drug threats.
US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will host the meeting.
The United States wishes to engage with all countries concerned about the public health and security risks associated with synthetic drugs.
Read: Bangladeshi farmers need to use fertilizer and water efficiently: Experts
"We encourage partners to join this coalition and contribute to building a safer world," Secretary Blinken said on Friday.
This coalition seeks to unite countries worldwide in a concerted effort to prevent the illicit manufacture and trafficking of synthetic drugs, identify emerging drug trends, and respond effectively to their public health impacts.
Synthetic drugs represent a grave and growing risk to the health and safety of Americans and people around the world. Illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are involved in more deaths of American adults under 50 than any other cause.
Other countries face challenges from dangerous synthetic drugs including tramadol, methamphetamine, captagon, MDMA, and ketamine.
Recognizing the urgent need for collective action, the United States is rallying the international community to address this pressing challenge head-on.
Following the establishment of the Global Coalition, the United States will engage in consultations with participating countries to prioritize specific, concrete actions to address synthetic drug threats.
Through specialized working groups, we will develop innovative solutions, drive national initiatives, and elevate the need to address synthetic drugs as a shared global priority.
The Global Coalition plans to reconvene on the margins of the 78th UN General Assembly and the March 2024 UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
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These gatherings will provide critical platforms to share progress and achievements with a wider audience and facilitate the advancement of international drug policy.
BSF officials Sonali Mishra visits Hili border check post in Dinajpur
Indian Border Security Force (BSF) Additional Director General Sonali Mishra on Friday visited Hili border in Dinajpur and discussed issues relating to the international border.
During her visit, she held a meeting with Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) on border related issues.
According to BGB, Additional Director General of Kolkata Eastern Command Mishra visited the Hili border at 10 am on Friday. Later, she visited a BGB checkpoint.
Read: 2 farmers shot by BSF along B’baria border
BGB Dinajpur Sector Commander Colonel Rashed Asghar and Joypurhat-20 BGB Battalion Commander Lt. Colonel Rafiqul Islam greeted her with flowers.
Read: 1 Bangladeshi shot dead, another wounded by BSF along Lalmonirhat border
Later, at the invitation of the BGB, she held a meeting with BGB officials on the Bangladesh side of the check post.
The officials of these two border forces discussed various issues of the border, BGB said.
Read more: Bangladeshi shot dead by India's BSF along Lalmonirhat border