UN Assembly President Stakes Presidency on Restoring Trust

Khalilur Rahman began his one-year presidency of the UN General Assembly's 81st session amid what he describes as a crisis of confidence in the organization. The Bangladeshi diplomat and foreign minister has centered his entire agenda on a single goal: reviving trust among member states.

He traces the current deficit back to the high hopes at the UN's founding in 1945. While the world has avoided a third global war, Rahman notes that the failure to prevent many conflicts and sluggish development progress have bred widespread frustration. He argues this has directly eroded faith in the institution.

The Three Pillars and Unmet Expectations

Rahman frames the trust deficit around the UN's three core pillars: peace and security, development, and human rights. He acknowledges that the Security Council, designed as the primary peacekeeper, often fails to deliver coherently due to gridlock. On development, he credits the UN with building a robust framework since the era of decolonization, but says progress is too slow.

The human rights pillar, he notes, receives only four percent of the organization's total spending. "We have to work hard along all three pillars to bring back the confidence the organization had at its creation," Rahman stated. He calls this a major challenge requiring cooperation from all member states and stakeholders.

A New Test: Artificial Intelligence

Rahman identifies artificial intelligence as a novel and profound challenge for the UN, unlike any it has faced before. He believes AI could greatly accelerate human progress but also poses serious dangers, referencing doomsday predictions from some major figures.

He advocates for a balanced approach. "We shouldn’t do anything to slow innovation, that has to continue." He insists that governments, developers, and users must all be part of global discussions to establish a safe pathway for the technology.

Defending the Assembly's Role

In response to critics who label the General Assembly as toothless compared to the Security Council, Rahman points to its unique convening power. He argues that if the assembly were useless, world leaders would not attend its annual High-Level Week, the largest gathering of its kind.

He describes the assembly as a safe environment for top-level diplomacy and an authoritative forum for hearing directly from global leaders. What I see is the great convening power of a body that represents the entire world, there’s no other place quite like it, he said. Rahman believes the body will continue to set international norms and provide direction.

Lessons from the Rohingya Crisis

Drawing from his direct work on the Rohingya refugee crisis, Rahman recounted horrific violence, including attacks on pregnant women. He also witnessed the resilience of the displaced population and their desire to return home.

The experience cemented a core lesson for his presidency. The lesson I carry is this: violence will not solve any problem. It will only defer it and make it worse, he explained. He advocates for dialogue and negotiation as the only viable solutions to such crises.

Looking ahead to the end of his term, Rahman said his measure of success would be concrete progress. He hopes to help member states agree on necessary UN reforms, ensure its financial solvency, and speed up delivery of results at the local level.