DHAKA, Jan 15, 2020 (BSS) – Ambassador Rabab Fatima, Bangladesh’s
Permanent Representative (PR) to the United Nations, has been unanimously
elected president of the UNICEF Executive Board at elections held on Tuesday
at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Vice-presidents will be the PRs of Lithuania and Morocco and DPRs of
Brazil and Switzerland, according to a message from the Bangladesh Permanent
Mission at the UN.
With this election, Bangladesh will be able to contribute further to the
work of the United Nations, this time in providing strategic guidance to its
agency specializing in the children’s causes, said the release.
Bangladesh was earlier elected to the Executive Board for the term 2019-
2021 representing the group of Asia-Pacific Sates.
Ambassador Fatima recently joined as the Permanent Representative of
Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York.
She succeeded Ambassador Masud Bin Momen as Bangladesh’s Permanent
Representative who served as the Vice President of UNICEF Executive Board in
2019.
In her acceptance speech, Ambassador Rabab Fatima thanked the Board
members for electing her and for their confidence in Bangladesh’s leadership
to address the challenges that continue to affect children across the globe,
and for meaningful and impactful 2020 for UNICEF.
Ambassador Fatima also assured UNICEF that the new Executive Board will
work hard to bring new ideas to uplift the wellbeing of children and fight
for their rights.
She applauded UNICEF’s persistent endeavor to improve the wellbeing of
children and emphasized that Bangladesh would help ensure, among other things
that UNICEF activities are responsive to the needs and priorities of the
recipient countries.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore welcomed the new President
and said that UNICEF looked forward to benefiting from her experience and
wisdom.
She also expressed optimism that Ambassador Fatima would spearhead the
bureau’s guidance to the work of UNICEF.