Intervention by Her Excellency Dr. Dipu Moni, M.P.
the Hon’ble Foreign Minister of Bangladesh
at the “Ministerial Breakfast: Increase Peace through Mediation”, co-hosted by H.E Mr. Ahmet Davutoglu, the Foreign Minister of Turkey and H.E Mr. Erkki Tuomioja, the Foreign Minister of Finland
Venue: Permanent Mission of Turkey, 821 UN Plaza, (Corner of 46th Street and 1st Avenue), New York 10017,
New York, Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Intervention by the Hon’ble Foreign Minister at the “Ministerial Breakfast: Increase Peace through Mediation”, co-hosted by H.E Mr. Ahmet Davutoglu, the Foreign Minister of Turkey and H.E Mr. Erkki Tuomioja, the Foreign Minister of Finland on the sideline of the 66th UNGA, New York, 20 September 2011
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Mr. Co-Chairmen
Hon’ble Ministers
Distinguished Colleagues
Excellencies
It gives me great pleasure to speak at this august gathering on a very important issue. I take this opportunity to thank H.E Mr. Ahmet Davutoglu, the Hon’ble Foreign Minister of Turkey and Mr. Erkki Tuomioja, the Hon’ble Foreign Minister of Finland for hosting this breakfast meeting. I am confident that our exchange of views this morning would consolidate our unity and cohesiveness in the coming days.
Let me also thank our Co-Chairs for choosing the theme “Increase Peace through Mediation” for this Ministerial Meeting. Let me add here with great satisfaction that your able stewardship had helped us to adopt the resolution “Strengthening the role of mediation in the peaceful settlement of disputes and conflict prevention and resolution” with a consensus in the General Assembly. Bangladesh is pleased to become one of the co-sponsors of this resolution. The adoption of the resolution is a testimony of our collective resolve to make a world free of violence and stressing upon the role of mediation in the peaceful settlement of disputes.
Bangladesh believes all wars, hatred and intolerance emanates from a corrupted mindset and therefore, it sponsored “culture of peace” resolution, the progress of which is still weak on the ground. However, this “mediation resolution” can mitigate that gap and hopefully will provide a vehicle to avoid war and terror, death and destruction and help peaceful settlement of issues.
However, important element is, the mediation process must be fair, objective, judicious and must not be abused. It should include, inter alia, the consent of parties to a particular dispute or conflict, the impartiality of the mediators, their compliance with agreed mandates, respect for national sovereignty under international law.
I strongly believe that Mediation has important role to play in peacebuilding and recovery processes, in particular in preventing post-conflict countries from relapsing into conflict. In this regard, I stress upon the role of regional and subregional organizations as mediators in the maintenance of international peace and security.
As we have been successful to adopt the resolution, we would now need to rally the international community to more actively use mediation and provide resources for it, in order to settle disputes threatening international peace and security. I assure you that Bangladesh will continue to extend her full support in every effort of the Forum.
I thank you.