Bangladesh pledged 26 PCRS components for the United Nations peacekeeping operations to meet their requirement.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs, M Shahriar Alam, made the announcement while sharing, Bangladesh's Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System (PCRS,) at the 2019 United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial, held at UN headquarters in New York, on Friday.
The pledged 26 PCRS components to UN include nine components from the Army, six from the Navy, three from the Air force, and eight from the Police.
Bangladesh is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping operations, and it first deployed uniformed personnel to serve with the Organization, in 1988 when they were deployed to help monitor the armistice, between Iran and Iraq.
Over the past three decades, according to the UN, the contributions of these brave men and women in the countries in which they serve have been immense.
In addition, Bangladesh has also pledged a unit for operational-level Unmanned Aerial Surveillance (UAS) in partnership with the United States.
"We've also demonstrated our commitment, by contributing to the norms setting part of the peacekeeping, including, our active participation in Action for Peace keeping Agenda, and in other parallel processes, like C-34," said the state minister.
Mentioning the atrocities and crimes, committed against civilians, during our Liberation War in 1971, the state minister said: "We endorsed the Kigali Principles on Protection of Civilians (PoC).”
We've incorporated a strong and comprehensive PoC component, in our peacekeeping training, with in-built demonstrations and tabletop exercises."
Shahriar mentioned Bangladesh's 'zero tolerance' policy, on sexual exploitation and abuse, in the UN Peacekeeping, and reaffirmed Bangladesh's commitment towards increasing the number of female peacekeepers, to achieve the target set by the UN.
The state minister said, Bangladesh has been supportive of the women, peace and security agenda, of the UN, since leading the adoption of the Security Council resolution, 1325.
"We're currently developing a national action plan to empower women in playing their natural role as peacekeepers," he said.
Modern supplies
The state minister, stressed on the importance of adequate resources, and critical enablers, to ensure the safety and security, and also enhance the performance of the peacekeepers. He enumerated Bangladesh's recent supplies of modern vehicles and other peacekeeping equipments in several UN Mission.
Shahriar, highlighted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's commitment to UN's Peacekeeping Operation, which comes from the Foreign policy guidelines, as enshrined in the Constitution, and the vision of our Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, for a peaceful world.
Ongoing efforts
Building on the ongoing efforts, to strengthen peacekeeping operations, through the Secretary General's Action for Peacekeeping initiative(A4P), and the previous peacekeeping ministerials and summits, in New York in 2014, the Leaders' Summit, on Peacekeeping in New York in 2015, Paris 2016, London 2016, and Vancouver 2017. The 2019 ‘United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial' has been convened at the UNHQs in New York..
According to the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh, to the United Nations, the Bangladesh delegation to the Peacekeeping Ministerial, is composed of senior officials from the armed forces, the police, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.