We must make the United Nations fit for the future: Khalilur
Bangladesh's Khalilur Rahman Takes Helm of UN General Assembly, Vows Overhaul of a Fractured Institution
Bdbusinessdaily.com – The 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly opened under a cloud of institutional doubt. On 8 September, as world leaders gathered in New York for what is traditionally the most diplomatic week of the year, the incoming president of the Assembly made clear that his tenure would be defined not by ceremony but by confrontation with the body's deepest structural weaknesses. Khalilur Rahman, a veteran Bangladeshi diplomat who stepped down from his post as foreign minister to assume the role, framed his mandate in blunt terms: the organisation must be rebuilt to match a world that has outgrown the architecture of 1945.
A Call to Repair Trust
Addressing reporters outside the General Assembly hall at UN headquarters, Rahman did not soften his diagnosis. He described a global environment in which member states have grown sceptical of the institution's capacity to deliver tangible outcomes, and he positioned his presidency as a corrective to that erosion of confidence.
"We must make the United Nations fit for the future. This must be a place where countries can once again say and vote 'Yes to UN' with confidence and enthusiasm."
The urgency of his framing is difficult to overstate. The General Assembly, with its 193 member states, remains the only truly universal forum in international diplomacy. Yet its resolutions carry no binding force, its budget depends on voluntary and assessed contributions that are often contested, and its ability to convene action on crises has been repeatedly tested by vetoes in the Security Council and by the widening gap between the promises of multilateralism and the realities of great-power competition. Rahman's insistence that reform must go "deeper" signals an intention to push beyond the incremental adjustments that have characterised previous reform cycles.
"We have a situation where trust is in deficit, and the organisation must undertake deeper reform in order to make it fit for the future – not only today, but for tomorrow."
The Theme: Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation
The defining slogan of Rahman's presidency is "Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all." The phrasing pairs a diagnostic claim (trust has been lost) with a managerial one (transformation must be steered, not merely endured). In his opening remarks to the full Assembly, he sharpened the point by invoking the historical distance between the organisation's founding moment and its present condition.
"This is not 1945. This is the 81st session. The world has moved on. The Organisation must move on, and I'll help that process."
He also stressed the importance of amplifying voices from civil society within the Assembly's deliberative space, a nod to the growing pressure from non-state actors, youth movements, and climate advocates who have long argued that the UN's consultative machinery is too slow and too narrow for the pace of contemporary crises.
The Gavel Passes
The formal transfer of authority followed the traditional ritual: Rahman received the iconic Icelandic wooden gavel from outgoing General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock, the German politician who had led the 80th session. The gavel, carved from Icelandic timber and passed from one president to the next since the practice began, symbolises continuity of procedure even as the political agenda shifts. For Rahman, the handover marked the end of a diplomatic career in Bangladesh's foreign ministry and the beginning of a year-long stewardship of the world's largest intergovernmental deliberative body.
Who Is Khalilur Rahman?
Rahman is not a newcomer to multilateral institutions. Before his appointment as Bangladesh's foreign minister, he held senior positions within the United Nations system and served as national security adviser and high representative for the Rohingya issue in Bangladesh's interim government. He is also a founding member of East West University in Dhaka, a private institution known for its law and international-relations programmes. His career spans both the operational side of diplomacy and the academic side, a combination that shapes the reformist, institutionally literate tone of his public statements.
A Tenure Begins Amid Compounding Crises
UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed Rahman's assumption of the presidency, acknowledging that the new session would unfold against a backdrop of simultaneous pressures: active armed conflicts on multiple continents, deepening geopolitical blocs, the persistent risk of nuclear escalation, entrenched poverty and inequality, and accelerating climate change. The General Assembly's role in such a landscape is largely normative and agenda-setting; it cannot compel military action or redistribute wealth, but it can shape the language of international law, coordinate development goals, and provide a platform where smaller states articulate positions that might otherwise be drowned out in bilateral power politics.
Whether Rahman's reform agenda translates into concrete institutional changes—whether in voting procedures, budget transparency, the role of the General Assembly in peacekeeping oversight, or the integration of climate and digital-governance mandates—will depend on the political will of member states over the coming year. The gavel has changed hands. The question now is whether the institution it governs can keep pace with the world it was meant to serve.
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