ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Stateless and unrepresented groups should and will continue to have a voice at the United Nations, the newly appointed President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Khalilur Rahman, told Rudaw on Tuesday, responding to the first question asked by a media outlet after assuming the position.
“When the founders of the United Nations adopted the [UN] charter, they said, 'Peoples of the United Nations.' They didn't say, 'Peoples of this country or that country of the United Nations,” the UN official told Rudaw's Namo Abdulla in response to a question about his approach to addressing issues of stateless nations - including Kurds and Rohingya Muslims.
Rahman's tenure as the 81st head of the General Assembly officially began on Monday, after his predecessor, Annalena Baerbock, stepped down in a ceremony at the global body’s headquarters in New York, in the presence of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“We must make the United Nations fit for the future,” he said in a speech quoted by the UN, adding that “the world has moved on. The Organization [UN] must move on, and I'll help that process.”
Rahman, 72, is a Bangladeshi diplomat with a 25-year career at the UN. He holds an MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University's Kennedy School.
He was appointed foreign minister of Bangladesh in February.
In November 2024, he took on the post of High Representative for the Rohingya Crisis, overseeing international policy and relief efforts for displaced Rohingya refugees.
Mentioning his role in that mission to Rudaw, Rahman noted that he facilitated a visit by Guterres to refugee camps where around 100,000 refugees said, "We want to go home."
"We got them to the United Nations. We added their voices. We - I will continue to do this as we proceed," he stated.
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