DHAKA: Incumbent Awami League government is trying its level best to get leadership of various international forums.

Bangladesh has achieved either leadership or membership of seven international and regional forums in 2014.
Recently, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury has become the first Bangladeshi to be elected the chairperson of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA).

The election took place on Thursday at the 60th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Cameroon’s Yaoundé.
Bangladesh’s first woman speaker Chaudhury will head the 35-strong executive committee of the CPA for the next three years.

This year, three more internationally important competitions ahead and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is directly supervising the campaigns.

Lawmaker Saber Hossain Chowdhury is competing for president post of Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU). The voting of the election will be on October 16 in Geneva of Switzerland.

On October 21, Bangladesh will vie for membership of Human Rights Council of the United Nations.

Besides, Bangladesh is also competing for membership of International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The election will be held in a conference, to be held from October 20 to November 7, in Busan of South Korea.

State Minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam told banglanews, “We are conducting campaigns and diplomatic communications for few months in these regards and we are hopeful to win in all forums.”

“Our confidence level got a boost after wining the president post of CPA and we hope to win rest three,” he added.
I am very happy with CPA result as this was decided at the last moment and honorable Prime Minister was very much involved with the process, said Shahriar Alam.

I sacrificed my EID and went to Benin in West Africa to campaign. Also campaigned in Samoa where I had 38 meetings in 3 days.

Giving special thanks to British parliament, Singapore and India for supporting Bangladesh the state minister for foreign affairs said, we are encouraged by this victory for other upcoming elections.

I dont want to predict but hope to win IPU, HRC and ITU, said Shahriar Alam.

He is going to hosting a reception in New York on 16th October for HRC and another reception in Busan on 24th for ITU, inform Mr Alam

As an UN-affiliated international organization specializing in information and communications technology (ICT), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) leads the development and global diffusion of ICT and networks by managing international frequencies and satellite orbits and by developing technological standards in telecommunications. 193 member states and more than 840 private-sector members from industry, research institutes and academia will vote during the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan, Korea to be held from 20 October to 7 November.

The delegates from 53 commonwealth countries last week elected the Bangladesh speaker at the 60th CPA conference in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. Shirin Sharmin was elected the chairperson of the 35-member executive committee, defeating the lone candidate from Cayman Islands Julianna O’Connor-Connolly, the speaker of the British-ruled small state. Shirin Sharmin got 70 votes while Julianna bagged 67,
In April this year Bangladesh was elected as a member in the executive board of United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef) for the next three years.

In May Bangladesh received `full membership’ of an Asian forum that works to enhance cooperation for peace, security and stability in the region. 25 members had `unanimously’ decided to accept Bangladesh as a `full member. of the CICA.

In June Bangladesh was elected as a deputy member of the governing body of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Bangladesh received 234 votes in the elections and has been elected for the period of 2014-2017 after a gap of three years.

In June Bangladesh candidate was elected a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) for the second successive term. Ambassador Ismat Jahan in Brussels will serve on the committee for the next four years – 2015 to 2018. She was a CEDAW member between 2011 and 2014.

Earlier in May Bangladesh permanent representative to the UN ambassador AK Abdul Momen was elected president of the South South Cooperation Bureau for next two years.

Bangladesh represents in over forty different international forums in UN, Dr. Momen informed Banglanews.

While talking over phone from New York Dr Momen expressed his hope to win the upcoming election for UNHRC membership.

We are running all-out campaign and hope to win this years upcoming elections under UN easily, a confident Dr. Momen said.

BDST 1207 HRS, OCT 12, 2014