The Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York represents Bangladesh to the United Nations headquartered in New York City, USA. On 17 September 1974, Bangladesh became a full member of the United Nations. Since then the Mission has been actively engaged with the world’s topmost multilateral body in upholding multilateralism and making value-driven contribution to all important UN discourses and norm-setting exercises related to global good. The Mission represents Bangladesh as a strong voice from the developing world on issues such as peace and security, human rights, sustainable development, migration, socio-economic and cultural matters, climate change and environment, and gender equity.
As the topmost priority for Bangladesh in recent times, the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations has been doing massive outreach with UN member states and UN machinery on Rohingya issue. The Mission has been able to engage the Secretary-General of the UN to take a strong position for the Rohingyas, who visited Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar along with the World bank President in 2018. The United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP) announced on 15 March 2018 that Bangladesh met all the criteria for graduation from the LDC for the first time. This is a major milestone in the sustainable development trajectory of Bangladesh. The Permanent Mission of Bangladesh in New York played a vital role in securing this qualification.
The Mission played the key role in Bangladesh’s election to various prestigious and important UN bodies viz. the UN Security Council two times (1979-80 and 2000-01), several times in the ECOSOC and the UN Human Rights Council. The Permanent Representative of Bangladesh served as the President of the 41st session of the UN General Assembly in 1986.
The Permanent Mission is headed by a Permanent Representative with the rank of an Ambassador. He /She runs the Mission with the assistance of a number of a Deputy Permanent Representative and officers and supporting staff members. Currently, the Mission has four Wings- Diplomatic Wing, Economic Wing, Defence Wing and Press Wing. Officers in all the Wings work under direct supervision of the Permanent Representative and Deputy Permanent Representative. Their main functions are to represent Bangladesh in the negotiations that take place at the United Nations Headquarters and ensure that Bangladesh’s interests and views are taken into due account by UN bodies and other UN member States.