Annual Bangabandhu Lecture held

Ansar Ahmed Ullah:

The 7 March Foundation organised the Annual Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Lecture 2025 on 7th March. Professor John Eade of Roehampton University chaired the online event, and the keynote paper titled ‘Dignity right to self-determination and sovereignty’ was delivered by Barrister Tania Amir. The opening remarks were made by Nooruddin Ahmed, the chairperson of the 7 March Foundation. The webinar event was broadcast live on Bridge Bangla 24.

In her talk, Tania Amir covered how the people of Bangladesh were in pursuit of establishing dignity, which translated into self-determination and eventually into sovereignty. She covered the British, Indian and Pakistan periods. She mentioned that the ruling classes in the West Pakistani considered themselves somehow superior to the people of East Pakistan.  Prejudice and racism were very dominant factors in denying the Bengalis to exercise power. They were denied access to services and businesses. In March 1971, a non-cooperation movement against Pakistan started. West Pakistan lost the total control of East Pakistan. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the De Facto ruler of East Pakistan. East Pakistan’s (Bangladesh) elected representatives were mandated, and they formed themselves into a constituent assembly to adopt the proclamation of independence and legitimately declare the independence of Bangladesh. She added that this Proclamation of Bangladesh’s independence was cited as the role model of law at the ICC in the case of Kosovo. She concluded by saying that sovereignty belongs to the people. Human dignity, equality and human justice were enshrined in the constitution of the Republic of Bangladesh in 1972.