BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

THE 66th UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION AND THE ROLE OF BANGLADESH: AN EVALUATION

Author: Razia Sultana

DOI Link: DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2011v32n4a3

ABSTRACT

Since its inception in 1945, the United Nations(UN) has been playing a pivotal role in restoring peace and maintaining security by taking several measures. One of the regular UN activities is to arrange the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) intending to gather all the Heads of States and Governments to discuss multiple challenging issues faced by the member states nationally and globally. As the continuation of the UN action, the 66thUNGA held in September 2011 came up with several pertinent issues like climate change, global recession, food crisis, nuclear safety and terrorism. Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also attended the 66thUNGA and proposed a six-point multi-dimensional peace model addressing a number of national and global vulnerabilities including poverty and hunger, inequality, climate change and terrorism. It is in this context that the paper tries to focus on the issues discussed in the 66thUNGAand give an assessment regarding the steps taken by the assembly considering its existing limitations. Concurrently, the paper takes an attempt to analyse the role of Bangladesh as a developing country in the 66thUNGAsession. The paper argues that through arranging UNGA for more than 60 years, the UN still tries to provide a unique venue for the member countries to discuss complex national and global issues and solve international disputes. More importantly, it is a common platform for small countries like Bangladesh to raise their voice, place their demands and to work together against the common global challenges.