FROM UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY HALL: Prime Minister Sheikh Haisna said the present Election Commission can hold free, fair and credible national elections.

She also said: “During our government`s tenure, the Election Commission has conducted 5,777 elections, electing 63,995 persons to the Parliament,   city corporations, municipalities and other local    bodies     without     receiving    any complaint.”   

In this international forum Sheikh Hasina sought cooperation of the international community in holding the trial of the war crimes accused for the sake of justice, human rights and the rule of law.

She told that two tribunals have been set up according to war crimes trial law of 1973. The trials are being held maintaining the highest standard of judicial practices. Through the trials the nation will be freed from the stigmas, she added.

Sheikh Hasina addressed the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

She delivered her speech in Bengali for 20 minutes starting at 2:10am Saturday (Bangladesh time).

“We aim to cement peace by resolving outstanding issues with our neighbors, increase cooperation with them through strengthening connectivity and maintain good relations with all countries of the world as per dictum, ‘Friendship towards all, malice towards none’, of the Father of the Nation,” she added.

Sheikh Hasina pointed out the role of her government against terrorism and mentioned the steps taken by her government to check this problem. She told that her government enacted law against militancy and money laundering.

The government has strengthened democracy to defeat militancy and fanaticism and said that her government has also strengthened the election commission, anti-corruption commission, human rights and information commission, she added.

The full text of the Prime Minister’s speech is given below:

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Mr. President,

Assalamu Alaikum and Good Afternoon to you all…

I congratulate you very warmly on your election as the President of the 68th Session of the General Assembly. I also congratulate Mr. Vuk Jeremic for his able leadership as President of the 67th UNGA.  I admire the Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon for his wisdom, bold initiatives and successes as Head of the United Nations.

Mr. President,

2.     Rapid technological innovations are transforming our world. The changes involved are also creating new conflicts within and among the states. The most affected have been the vulnerable, the deprived and the disadvantaged. It reminds me of     my father and the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman`s visionary call, in his first appearance before this Assembly 39 years ago, for a world order based on peace and justice, and a global economic arrangement to free the world of poverty, hunger and aggression.  As his  daughter,  I  am  proud  to  have  been  among leaders   adopting   the Millennium   Declaration  in 2000,  to  be at the Review  of the MDGs  in 2010, and  to  be here  now  participating in the  transition from MDGs    to the post-2015 Development Agenda.

3.    I hope this year`s theme "the post-2015 Agenda: Setting the Stage" would help evolve a pragmatic strategy for the post-2015 development goals. The Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals and the newly created High Level Political Forum are progressing well. Our experience would also be useful in overcoming the challenges to the MDGs within 2015, and preparing the post-2015 development agenda.

4.    Bangladesh has submitted to the United Nations, a draft of the post-2015   Development Agenda covering the socio-economic and the environmental goals and resources required for achieving them.  We also held a Global Leadership Dialogue on population dynamics. The Dhaka Declaration placed human being at the center of all development agenda. It incorporated population growth, aging, urbanization and migration, among the priority issues.  The meeting also felt strongly the need for mainstreaming migration in the post- 2015 Development Agenda, particularly to accommodate the "climate migrants."

5.  Our   aim is  to   become   a  middle-income country  and to realize  our "Vision  2021",  through setting  up  goals  that  match  with  the  MDGs.  We have already met or are on track to meet MDG-1, MDG-2, MDG-3, MDG-4, MDG-5, and MDG-6. Poverty has been reduced from 56.6% in 1991 to below 26%.  In the  last  four  and  a half  years,  the average  GDP  growth  rate  remained   at  6.4%;  50 million   people   have   joined   the  middle   income group;  export earnings  rose from US $10.53  billion in  2006  to  US  $27.03   billion  now;  remittances increased  from US $5 billion  in 2006 to US $14.5 billion;   foreign   currency   reserve   improved   from US $3.49  billion  in 2006 to US $16 billion;  power production    capacity have also increased from 3,200 MW in 2006 to 9,059 MW, to name a few indicators.

6.      Thus, Bangladesh is often named as a “Model of Economic Development” and the “Standard Bearer of South Asia”. Our achievements received a MDG Award; a South-South Award; the Global Diversity Award; and the FAO Food Award 2013. These recognitions were achieved largely due to the practice of the principles in the UN resolution on “People`s Empowerment and Development Model” that I tabled and was adopted by the 66th UNGA.

Using the "state of the art" digital technology, the people are today getting more than 200 services from 4,582 digitalized Union Services and Information Centers. Rural women are also getting health care services from digitally inter-connected 15,500 Community Health Clinics and Union Health Centers, which are reaching the health care services to the doorstep of the people. Advanced cell phone technologies are also providing services to over 100 million subscribers.

7.  I believe real national development is achievable only through education. It is the main driving force for attaining peace and prosperity of a nation and for upholding justice, rule of law, democratic values and people`s empowerment. Real development also demands empowerment of women and their equal participation with men in all walks of life.  Our  new  Educational   Policy provides girls with free education up to higher secondary   school,   monthly   stipends   to   11.90 million students of poor families and also free textbooks  to  all  up  to  the  secondary  level.  Our policies have also helped grow women leaders at the grass-root to the topmost level. In politics, so far 14,000 women are elected to the local government bodies and 70 to the Parliament. Five women are serving as Ministers and one as a Whip. Bangladesh is possibly the only nation today with women occupying the position of the Prime Minister, the Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, and the Deputy Leader, all at the same time. The reserved 30% of posts for women have succeeded many to reach high positions in the judicial, administrative, diplomatic and in the armed forces and law enforcing agencies.

8. Our policies of empowering the people, particularly the vulnerable, include social safety net programs; Vulnerable Group Feeding and Development; "Ashrayan" (Housing & Livelihood) for the homeless; monthly pensions for senior citizens, widows, destitute women, insolvent freedom fighters, the disabled, and maternity allowance for a total of 4.3 million people; food and nutrition security to 1.04 million rural people through "One House, One Farm" schemes, to name a few. The disadvantaged and the physically challenged are provided with education, skill development, and interest free loan for self employment. In the formal sector, one percent quota has been reserved for them. For those with autism and other developmental disorders, a resolution on "Autism Spectrum Disorder" was tabled by Bangladesh in the 67th UNGA.  It had been   adopted   unifying   us all in our quest to provide them their rightful place in the world.

9.       Our progress in all spheres has, however, been sadly held back by climate change. Fraught with increasing natural disasters, Bangladesh faces a calamitous future due to global warming and sea level rise.  It is estimated that 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature would lead to a meter rise of the sea level submerging a fifth of Bangladesh, And forcing 30 million "climate migrants" to move\elsewhere,   thereby,   creating   crisis   of   a   huge magnitude within and beyond our borders. I, therefore, reiterate the call that I had made at the 64th UNGA for a legal regime to ensure social, cultural, and economic rehabilitation of the climate migrants.  I also call again for a fast track funding mechanism  for  the  "Climate  Change  Fund"  for LDCs  to  ensure  sustained  funding  for  the realization of our adaptation and mitigation action plans.

10.     Bangladesh achieved independence in 1971 through    monumental    sacrifices.    Our   sacrifice began   with bloodshed   to preserve   our mother tongue, Bangla on 21st February 1952. At my government`s initiative, this sacrifice was immortalized  in  1999  by  UNESCO  by  its declaration  of 21st  February  as International Mother Language Day. I propose that the United Nations   likewise   declare   21st February   as the "International   Mother   Language   Day".   In   the current UNGA, we plan to table it as a resolution to preserve all the living languages of the world. I urge all of you to adopt the resolution to protect and promote our mother tongues as a vehicle of peace, culture and development. The measures we have  taken  so  far  in  this  regard  include,  among others, establishment of the International Mother Language Institute in Dhaka and asking the UN to declare  Bangla  as one of its official languages.  I thank the UN for introducing a Bangia website, a Radio program, and the UNDP for publishing its Asia Report in Bangia.

11. During our War of Liberation   in 1971, Pakistani occupation forces in collaboration with their local cohorts perpetrated genocide, rape, arson and crimes against humanity. Over three million people sacrificed their lives and a quarter of a million women lost their honor to achieve independence. Therefore, since then, it was the ardent hope and aspiration of the nation to bring the perpetrators to justice. Accordingly, our Government constituted two War Crimes Tribunals under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973 to try them. The trials are being held maintaining the highest standard of judicial     practices. I urge the international community to support this trial process for the sake of justice, human rights and the rule of law. Successful completion of the trial would heal the wounds of war and move Bangladesh on to the road of peace and progress.

12.      The anti-liberation forces have always been working to destroy the secular nature of our nation. Under  the  direct  patronage  of  the  BNP-Jamaat Alliance  Government   from  2001  to  2006,  they coalesced  to  form  terrorist  outfits,  which  began with  bomb  and  grenade  attacks  killing  people, especially the secular leaders and the Members of Parliament.  On  21st  August  2004,  they  made  an attempt to assassinate  me by lobbing 13 grenades on a public rally that I was addressing  to protest the grenade attack on the British High Commissioner on May 21st 2004. In that attack, 24 people were killed and    over      500     injured. Miraculously, I survived. As you are aware, earlier a more brutal attack was carried out on 15 August 1975, killing my father and the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 18 members of my family.  My  younger  sister Sheikh  Rehana  and  I  survived  only  because  we were   out   of  the   country   at  that   time.  These gruesome attacks cemented my resolve to eliminate     terrorism,     and     to     adopt     tough Anti-Terrorism and Anti-money Laundering Acts.

13.   At home, our government is entrenching democracy to ideologically defeat terrorism and extremism. Our Commissions on Election, Anti-Corruption, Human Rights and Information have been    strengthened.    During    our   Government`s tenure, the Election Commission has conducted 5,777 elections, electing 63,995 persons to the Parliament,   city corporations, municipalities and other local    bodies     without     receiving    any complaint.   Thus, the Election Commission has amply proven that it can hold free, fair and credible national elections. In respect to foreign affairs, we aim to cement peace by resolving outstanding issues with our neighbors, increase cooperation with them through strengthening connectivity and maintain good relations with all countries of the world as per dictum, "Friendship towards all, malice towards none", of the Father of the Nation.

14.     Our commitment to global peace is proven by our role as a top troop contributor in UN peacekeeping and Vice Chair of the UN Peace Building Commission. It is also reflected by our position on disarmament and the non-proliferation agenda. During my first term as the Prime Minister from  1996  to  2001,  Bangladesh  became  the  first among South Asian nations to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Anti­ Personnel  Mine  Ban Treaty.  In the  current  term, I  am happy  to  be again  first  in the region  to  he sign the  Arms  Trade  Treaty,  and  acced to the  remaining   CCW  instruments   in  this  year`s Treaty Signing Event. Our role on world affairs is based on justice and democratic values, which assures     international   peace   and   security,   and supports disarmament.

Mr. President,

15.     Promotion   of   cultural   expressions,   inter­ faith and inter-cultural dialogue is essential for peace and development in the post-2015 era. My personal initiatives to disseminate these values at home and abroad have been recognized by UNESCO in 2012 by its Cultural Diversity Medal. Culture is integral to the identity of every member state of the United Nations. Therefore, we had proposed to the UNESCO and at the High Level Dialogue   on   Culture   and   Development   in the General Assembly to include "Culture" as a theme of the post-2015 Development Agenda.  I reiterate that call here today for your support.

16.   Bangladesh is held back by resource constraint and inadequate external assistance.  To achieve the MDGs within 2015, and to implement the post-2015 development goals, we need our development partners to keep their pledge of contributing 0.7% oftheir GNP as ODA, and 0.2% of GNP as ODA to the LDCs. I urge them to also grant LDCs,  duty-free  and  quota-free  access  to, their markets; an equal voice in the Bretton Woods Institutions and in the International Financial Institutions, and free movement of labor; Implementation  of the Mode  IV of the  GATS  is also essential for the benefit of both sending and receiving countries.

17.     The      formulation      of     the      post-2015
Development Agenda is a daunting task for all member states of the United Nations. We need to be united in agreeing on a common set of the development agenda that would fulfill our aspiration in building a just, prosperous and sustainable world where no person or nation is left behind. Bangladesh, representing 160 million progressive and resilient people, will lead these efforts from the front.

18.   The globalized world has its unique complexities that sometimes threaten peace. Policies based on justice are imperative to diffuse such threats.  Justice is the panacea for peace that allows development and progress, which in turn pacify  the  challenges  posed  to  freedom, democracy,    human    rights,    ecology,    climate change,  equitable  sharing  of  trans-boundary resources  such as water,  among  others. Our resolution on the "Culture of Peace" tabled in the UNGA every year is done so in this spirit, and is always   adopted   by   consensus.   It conveys   the message of mutual respect of peoples and nations in our bid for a world of peace and promise.  I believe  we  all  aspire  for  such  a  world  for  our progeny.

BDST: 1343 HRS, SEP 28, 2013
Edited by- Shahjahan