• Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, United Nations, New York (March 2002 - June 2007)
• Served as Ambassador & Permanent Representative for Bangladesh to the United Nations
• Instrumental in Bangladesh’s entry to United Nations
• United Nations Security Council President
• Headed Security Council missions to Kosovo & Belgrade
• President of the Executive Board, UNICEF
• Coordinator of the Least Developed Countries
• Chairman of the Fifth (Administrative & Budgetary) Committee, UN General Assembly
• Vice-President of the UN Economic & Social Council (ECOSOC)
• UNICEF Director in Japan, Australia & New Zealand
• Served as Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Chile, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela
• Served as Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to the Bahamas and Guyana
• Recipient of U Thant Peace Award & UNESCO Gandhi Gold Medal for Culture of Peace
• Distinguished Adjunct Professor, School of Diplomacy, Seton Hall University, New Jersey
  
• Honorary Doctorate by the Soka University of Japan for his work on the United Naitons issues
• Secretary-General of the International Ministerial Conference of Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries and the Donor Community on Transit Transport Cooperation (Almaty, Kazakhstan on 28-29 August 2003)
• Secretary-General of the International Meeting for the ten-year review of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of the Small Island Developing States (Mauritius, 30 August to 3 September 2004)
  
  

Ambassador Chowdhury has long and varied experience and expertise in the UN and multilateral affairs. During his career in the diplomatic service of Bangladesh and executive service for the United Nations, he has specialized in development issues. He has been closely involved in international economic and social debate representing Bangladesh and the UN in various multilateral forums and meetings. His long association with multilateral affairs started with his close involvement in the negotiations from 1972 to 1974 which secured the Security Council's approval for Bangladesh's membership in the United Nations.

CAREER POSTS & INITIATIVES

Ambassador & Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations,
(1996 – 2001)

Completed assignment as the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York in September 2001.

During this period, also Bangladesh’s concurrently accredited Ambassador to Chile, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela and High Commissioner to the Bahamas and Guyana.

Representative of Bangladesh & President - United Nations Security Council
(2000-2001)

Representative of Bangladesh to the UN Security Council. President of the Security Council for two terms in March 2000 and in June 2001.

In April 2000, headed the first-ever Security Council mission to Kosovo. Led the first ever all-member Security Council mission to Kosovo and Belgrade in June 2001.

Chaired the Security Council Sanctions Committee on Sierra Leone and launched the first international initiative for a certification regime in Sierra Leone to prevent trading in “conflict diamonds”. Member of the Security Council mission to Sierra Leone and five other West African countries in October 2000.

Presented in February 2001, a set of forward-looking recommendations on sanctions regimes established by the Security Council as the Chairman of the Council’s Working Group on Sanctions.

President - United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Board
(1985-1986, 2000)

Served as President of the UNICEF Executive Board for the year 2000. Also served as the Chairman of that Board in 1985-1986. Chairman of the Programme Committee of UNICEF’s Executive Board for two terms in 1983 and 1984.

Vice-Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the Special Session on Children scheduled in 2000.

Director –UNICEF Japan, Australia, New Zealand/Secretary of Exec. Board – UNICEF
(1990-1996)

Director and Secretary of the Executive Board of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in New York (1993-1996) and UNICEF Director for Japan, Australia and New Zealand (1990-1993).

Pioneered the establishment of Baby-Friendly Hospitals in Japan, certifying the first one in that country in 1992, which was also the first in any industrialized country.

Director-General – Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh
(1986-1990)

At the Foreign Ministry of Bangladesh, served as the Director-General responsible for multilateral economic affairs (1986-1990) and as Director-General for South and South East Asia (1979-1980).

Attended UN General Assembly regular and special sessions and major global conferences from 1972 to date.

Chairman - Fifth (Administrative & Budgetary) Committee, UN General Assembly
(1998-2000)

Served as the Chairman of the Fifth (Administrative & Budgetary) Committee, a Main Committee of the 52nd UN General Assembly Session. Steered to successful conclusion the deliberations relating to the financial, administrative and budgetary aspects of the Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s first set of UN reform proposals, the 1998-99 biennium budget of the UN and the triennial scale of UN contributions (1998-2000).

Vice-President – Economic & Social Council (ECOSOC), United Nations
(1997-1998)

Two terms in 1997 and 1998 as Vice President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Effectively steered the 16-month-long negotiations resulting in a successful comprehensive review of all ECOSOC subsidiary bodies for the first time in UN history.

Deputy Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, (1980 – 1986)

Bangladesh’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1980 to 1986 in New York.

CULTURE OF PEACE INITIATIVES

Undertook a pioneering initiative at the United Nations on culture of peace and chaired the nine-month-long negotiations which resulted in the adoption by the UN General Assembly in September 1999 of the landmark document on “Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace”. Steered the initiative resulting in the declaration of the “International Decade for the Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010)”.

Member of the International Advisory Panel of UNESCO on Culture of Peace.

Recipient of the U Thant Peace Award and UNESCO Gandhi Gold Medal for Culture of Peace.

LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (LDC) MATTERS

Coordinator for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), now 49 in number, in New York for more than ten years during 1996-2001 and 1980-1986. Prepared, piloted and provided guidance for all LDC-related resolutions in the UNGA and ECOSOC during these periods.

Led the negotiations on behalf of the LDCs at the Third UN Conference on LDCs in May 2001, which adopted the comprehensive Brussels Programme of Action for the LDCs for the present decade. Also represented the LDCs in the preparatory meetings and consultations for LDC-III.

Prepared and guided the Annual LDCs Ministerial Meetings held in New York on the margins of the regular UNGA sessions during 1996-2001.

Prepared and guided LDCs Special Ministerial Session during the South Summit in Havana in 2000.

Led negotiations for the LDCs at the Non-Aligned Summits in Belgrade (1989), Cartagena (1995) and Durban (1998).

Actively participated in the First and Second UN Conferences on LDCs in Paris in 1981 and 1990.

Organised the LDCs Ministerial Conference in Dhaka in 1989, as Director-General for multilateral economic affairs in the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry.

Chairman of the Intergovernmental Meeting of the Asia-Pacific LDCs in 1990 and also chaired the Meeting of Experts on LDCs in Bangkok that year.

POPULATION, MICROCREDIT & OTHER DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES

Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the five-year review of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) by the 1999 UN General Assembly Special Session.

Chairman of the Main Committee of the Hague International Forum on Population in February 1999.

Established in 1997 and coordinated the “Friends of Microcredit at the United Nations”, a group of more than 50 Ambassadors to the UN who are supportive of microcredit for poverty eradication & empowerment.

ELECTIVE OFFICES IN MULTILATERAL BODIES

• Coordinator Vice-President of the International Conference on Population organized by the UN in Mexico City in August 1984 as representative of Bangladesh and proposed the first draft of the “Mexico City Declaration on Population and Development”, finally adopted by the Conference.
  
  
• Chairman of the UN Committee on Negotiations with Intergovernmental Agencies for the establishment of the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a specialized agency (1985).
  
  
• Vice Chairman of the UN Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) for two terms (1985 & 1986).
  
  
• President of the FAO/World Food Programme Pledging Conference in which the WFP reached the one-billion-dollar mark for the first time (1984).
  
  
• Founding Chairman of the UN Committee for Population Award (1983) and reelected twice (1984 & 1985).
  
  
• Chairman of the Group of 27, working group of G-77 (1982-1983) in New York.
  
  
• Chairman of the Meeting of Experts on the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Least Developed Countries (1990).
  
  
• Chairman of the Intergovernmental Meeting on ESCAP Least Developed Countries (1990).
  
  
• Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the International Conference on Population and the Urban Future in Barcelona (1986).
  
  
• Member of the Board of Trustees of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB) (1987-88).

OFFICES IN CIVIL SOCIETY, NGO & RESEARCH BODIES

• Vice President of the Society for International Development (SID), Bangladesh Chapter from (1988-1990).
  
  
• Vice President for Programmes and Vice President for Membership, SID, New York Chapter (1995 & 1996)
  
  
• Member of the Japan Society for International Development (1991-1993).
  
  
• Member of the Board of Governors, Bangladesh Institute for International and Strategic Studies (1986).

CURRENT OFFICES

• Chairman, Board of Directors of “Population 2005”, Washington DC
  
  
• Chairman, International Institute for South Asian Affairs (INSAF), New York
  
  
• Member, Board of Directors, Grameen Foundation USA, Washington DC
  
  
• Member, Board of Directors of the Population Institute, Washington DC

EDUCATION & SPECIAL INTERESTS

Master of Arts with Honors in Contemporary History and International Relations
University of Dhaka, 1964

Regular contributor to journals on peace, development and human rights issues.

Speaker at various academic institutions and other forums most recently at Columbia, Princeton and Clarke Universities in the USA