Madam President,
On behalf of the Bangladesh delegation and 99 co-sponsors, I have the honour to introduce draft resolution entitled “Follow-up to the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace” (A/75/L.28).
This year, considering the constraints posed by the pandemic, we decided to have a technical rollover of the resolution from last year. The draft resolution has technical updates to PP4, PP14, PP20 and PP21, as well as, to OP20 and OP21. These include references to the General Assembly High-level Forum on the Culture of Peace, convened virtually by the President of the Assembly on 10 September 2020 on the theme “The Culture of Peace: Change our world for the better in the age of COVID-19,” and the Chair’s summary of the meeting. The high-level forum recognized the relevance of culture of peace in responding to the unprecedented crisis posed by the pandemic.
We thank the sponsoring delegations for their valuable suggestions and advice; and we are grateful to everyone for their understanding and cooperation.
Mr. President,
After the successful holding of the 20th anniversary last year, the resolution has returned to its original form. It requests the President of the General Assembly to consider convening a High-level Forum on the Culture of Peace on or around 13 September 2021. As in previous years, we look forward to working together with the PGA’s Office to make next year’s event yet another success.
Mr. President,
The notion of culture of peace, which began in 1999 as a modest venture, has over time, with the mandate of this august Assembly, evolved into a dominant theme finding larger footprints and recognition in all major UN discourses. In the rapidly changing global security scenario, it has proved to be a useful tool to complement UN Charter obligations of maintaining peace in the world.
During this pandemic situation, when we are seeing rising intolerance, the importance and relevance of the notion has only grown. We hope to overcome the challenges posed by COVID-19 by continuing to spread the message of culture of peace.
As of last count with me, 99 countries have joined to co-sponsor the draft before us. The large number of cross-regional co-sponsorship is a demonstration of the unwavering commitment of the international community to the universal appeal of culture of peace.
This august Assembly has over the past 21 years endorsed the enduring value of a culture of peace and adopted this flagship resolution under this agenda item by consensus. And we expect the same support this year.
We sincerely thank those delegations who have already co-sponsored the draft resolution and we look forward to more delegations co-sponsoring from the floor ahead of its adoption.
Finally, I thank you, Madam President, and your office for your continued support to the follow-up to the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace.
I thank you.