Khalilur Rahman Takes Office as President of 81st UN General Assembly

Khalilur Rahman, a Bangladeshi politician, officially took over as president of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. At UN headquarters in New York, he received the body’s symbolic gavel from outgoing president Annalena Baerbock.

In his first speech, Rahman identified the crisis of confidence in the multilateral system, wars, humanitarian crises and the worsening impacts of climate change as major global challenges, and stressed the need to reform the United Nations. He said the body must be updated in line with changes in the world and prepared for the future.

The new president of the General Assembly has announced “restoring trust and managing transformation” as the theme of this session. He said the session would focus on efforts to establish peace and end conflicts, accelerate implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, tackle climate change, support human rights and migrants, manage artificial intelligence and reform the UN structure.

Annalena Baerbock, president of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, said at the final meeting of that session that despite its shortcomings, the role of the United Nations is more important and necessary than ever. She added that no country would be better off without the organization.

Baerbock also said that in an environment where hateful content receives several times more attention, the UN’s positive achievements are easily overlooked. According to her, this is one of the major challenges facing the organization.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also stressed at the meeting the need to restore confidence in the multilateral system. He said that as conflicts, inequalities, injustices, the climate crisis, the challenges posed by artificial intelligence and financial gaps continue to rise, cooperation with the new president of the General Assembly is of decisive importance to strengthening this system.

The General Assembly is one of the main organs of the United Nations, in which all member states are represented and whose presidency changes on a rotating basis. The body is the main forum for discussing major global issues, from peace and security to development and human rights.