Shawdesh Desk:

Bangladesh has urged the international community to scale up their efforts for burden and responsibility sharing to the Rohingya crisis and create the conditions for the safe and sustainable return of the displaced 1.1 million Rohingyas to their homeland.

“Given the protracted nature of the Rohingya crisis, we urge the international community and the relevant UN agencies, to scale up their efforts for international burden and responsibility sharing” said the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN Ambassador Rabab Fatima.

She was speaking on Friday (Dec 10) at the General Assembly Debate on “Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special economic assistance”.

Highlighting the humanitarian assistances provided by Bangladesh to the Rohingyas sheltered in Cox’s Bazar, in cooperation with the UN and other humanitarian partners, Rabab Fatima called for increased international attention to the situation in Myanmar, in order to create the conditions for the safe and sustainable return of the displaced 1.1 million Rohingyas to their homeland.

“The prolongation of the crisis will further compound the already complex political and humanitarian situation in this region”, she added.

On natural disaster and climate related humanitarian situations, the Ambassador shared Bangladesh’s good practices and substantive investments in disaster-risk reduction, prevention, adaptation and resilience building, mitigation and relief. “We have adopted the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan which shifts the focus from vulnerability to resilience building and prosperity”, she added.

With regard to growing incidents of displacements caused by natural disaster and climate change, the Bangladesh envoy at UN said that, in order to meet the humanitarian needs of those displaced as a result of climate change, coordination and coherence among the relevant United Nations entities and other stakeholders need to be enhanced.

In this regard, she highlighted the work of the Platform on Disaster Displacement.

The Bangladesh Permanent Representative also underlined the importance of transition from emergency response to preparedness and resilience-building, in accordance with national priorities and the situation on the ground.

She said that the international community must undertake development activities with a focus on building resilience and ultimately reducing dependency on humanitarian aid.

Recognising the centrality of the role of women as first responders of humanitarian crises, she urged to strengthen gender-responsive policy development for disaster-risk reduction and mitigation.

Ambassador Rabab Fatima also expressed deep concern at the denial of humanitarian access in many conflict situations, and the indiscriminate armed attacks against humanitarian personnel and facilities.

She stressed on the importance of ensuring accountability in the event of such violence.

Following the debate, the General Assembly adopted four resolutions on strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the UN.

Among those, the resolution on natural disasters was facilitated by Bangladesh delegation on behalf of Group of 77 & China.