For the past two decades, Chowhurdy has been recognized as a leader in the movement for global peace. Ambassador Chowdhury currently holds the titles of Career Diplomat; Permanent Representative to the United Nations; President of the UN Security Council; and, President of the UNICEF board. From 2002 to 2007, he served as the UN Under-Secretary-General. Chowdhury has also served as the Secretary-General of the two major global conferences convened by the United Nations General Assembly: The Almaty International Conference on Global Transit Transport Cooperation in 2003 and the Mauritius International Meeting on Small Island Developing States in 2005.
Since October 2007, he has held the role as the Honorary Chair of the International Day of Peace NGO Committee. Chowdhury is a member of the Wisdom Council of the Summer of Peace 2012, a world-wide participatory initiative to advance the Culture of Peace, as well as a Board of Trustee of the New York City Peace Museum.
In 2007, he completed his term as the Under-Secretary-General and high representative for the most vulnerable countries of the world. From 1996 to 2001, Ambassador Chowdhury was Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, his native country, to the United Nations in New York. In addition, he served as Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Chile, Nicaragua, Peru, and Venezuela as well as Bangladesh’ High Commissioner to the Bahamas and Guyana.
One of his major accomplishments as the president of the Security Council included an initiative that brought about the adoption of the groundbreaking UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which recognized for the first time the role and contribution of women in the area of peace and security.
Due to his contributions, in 1999 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the landmark “Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace.” He also initiated the declaration by the United Nations General Assembly of the “International Decade for Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World (2001-2010).”
Ambassador Chowdhury is the first recipient of the Institute for Global Leadership Lifetime Service Award which he received at the conference on New Leadership Models for Worcester, United States and the World held in Worcester, Massachusetts in May 2007. In October 2007, the United Nations NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values, and Global Concerns presented its first “SPIRIT OF THE UNITED NATIONS” Award to Chowdhury. Also in 2007, he received the highest honor of The Government of Burkina Faso in West Africa, “L’Ordre Nacionale,” in Ouagadougou for his championship of the cause of the most vulnerable countries. Chowdhury has earned a number of honorary degrees for his global peace efforts from Soka University, in Tokyo, Japan and Saint Peter’s College, in Jersey City, NJ, among others. More
