Knowing Ameerah Haq a little closer

During my work at the UN Peacekeeping Mission in East Timor in 2011, the head of the mission was a Bangladeshi woman, Ameerah Haq. She was serving as the UN Secretary General's Special Representative in East Timor back then. Out of curiosity, I wanted to know more about her: how was she as a person, what was her leadership style, etc.

Previously, no woman in Bangladesh had worked in such a high-ranking position in the UN. Whoever I asked had vastly positive things to say about Ameerah Haq. At that time, I was working as the Regional Administrator for the Baucau Region of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in East Timor and I went to Ameerah Haq’s office for the first time. She asked after me and we talked about various other issues as well. I have not seen many people with such deep insight and sensitivity. After that day, I met her in various events and festivals. Her aura has always enlightened me.

Under the leadership of Ameerah Haq, the mission enjoyed very good relations with the Timorese. Ms. Haq systematically met with the leadership of the country, the opposition, military, police, civil society, legislature and the judiciary. She traveled extensively in the country meeting with local officials, women groups. She put a lot of effort into building the capacity of the Timorese National Police in a very concerted manner, which was not done normally in a peacekeeping mission.

Women in East Timor played an important role in their struggle for independence. However, in post-war and post-conflict East Timor, violence against women had escalated dramatically. Most of the men who took part in the war were unemployed and frustrated. The leaders of the United Nations Peace Keeping Mission under the leadership of Ameerah Haq at that time took several initiatives to prevent such violence against women. During that time, the UN had executive responsibility of policing in the country. The Mission urged all countries who were contributing police to the UN to send more female police officers to  Timor-Leste.

Ameerah Haq personally put a lot of emphasis on community policing and also requested Police Contributing Countries to send police who had this kind of experience. Meanwhile, UN police officers created women-friendly police stations, safe havens for women, where abused women could take temporary shelter. UNICEF created a child-friendly environment in police stations there too. The walls were painted brightly so that the children would be happy when the mothers would come to the police station to place complaints.

The United Nations Peacekeeping Mission helped to de-escalate all conflicts in East Timor and facilitate fair and peaceful elections in the country. Moreover, the mission had taken various important initiatives for women’s empowerment.

Before the closure of the UN mission in East Timor in 2012, Ameerah Haq often attended town hall meetings with all the mission's staff including police and military. Her sensitivity and wisdom were evident in her speeches and question-and-answer sessions at every meeting. She organized various trainings for local staff of the mission, so that when the UN peacekeeping mission ended, they would be able find better jobs elsewhere or establish themselves as entrepreneurs. She knew that closing a mission would not be easy for the national staff particularly since they would all lose their jobs. She spent a lot of time explain to them that the fact that the UN felt that they could leave the country was a measure of great success for the Timorese people. She assured them that during the three years she was there, she would build the capacity of the national staff so that they would be able to find other jobs or be self-employed.

She developed a Transition Plan which was chaired by the President and included the Prime Minister and many cabinet ministers and the head of the army and the police. This was the first time that such a detailed transition had been undertaken in the UN’s history and since then the East Timor mission’s transition plan became the model for all other missions to follow.

During my tenure as a Regional Administrator of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in East Timor's Baucau region, Ameerah Haq once came to Baucau. She spoke to my office assistants, other officials, police, military with respect and inquired about them all. Everyone was impressed with such sincerity and amicability of the Chief of the Mission. Knowing how superiors usually talk to subordinates, my fascination for her attitude and behavior knew no bounds.

Ameerah Haq served for a long time as the Under Secretary General of the United Nations Field Support Division at UN Headquarters. At that time, she worked towards the success of all peacekeeping missions and field missions in the world. Immediately upon her retirement, SG Ban Ki Moon requested Ameerah Haq to join as the Vice Chair of the High-Level Independent Panel of Peace Operation (HIPPO). The panel worked on what future peacekeeping missions might look like, and whether the United Nations was ready to meet new challenges. When the UN peacekeeping missions first started, the missions were responsible for monitoring ceasefires between countries. But over the past few decades, UN peacekeeping missions have mainly been working to resolve internal conflicts in different countries such as Darfur, Congo, Somalia, South Sudan.

Ameerah Haq served as the UN Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Sudan and Afghanistan. While she worked in Sudan, I was in the UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan. Ms. Haq tried her best to better the lives of internally displaced people (IDPs) of Darfur who were displaced due to internal conflict and discrimination. She met those displaced people in the IDP camps, comforted them, tried her best to change their situation. Moreover, she was responsible for the  delivery of humanitarian aid to the helpless people in IDP camps through her position as Humanitarian Coordinator.

She visited Darfur again some eight years later while serving as the Under Secretary General at UNHQ. She said in an interview that even after eight years, the fate of the people of Darfur had not changed much even though various initiatives and political processes were still underway to improve their lives. Where internally displaced people used to previously live in tents which were temporary structures, a few brick-walled houses have risen ever since.

Some IDP camps have almost become peri-urban centers. Displaced people in the IDP camps were still dependent on food, education and medical services from various UN agencies and other international assistance. As Under Secretary General, she spoke to internally displaced people and refugees in conflict-affected regions around the world. She took many important initiatives to alleviate their misfortunes and worked tirelessly for the success of all United Nations peacekeeping missions.

Ameerah Haq studied in Holy Cross School in Dhaka for some time in her childhood. But almost her entire school life was spent in Loreto Convent, Shillong, India. The breathtaking natural beauty of Shillong and the educational environment of Loreto Convent made her a generous, confident and self-reliant young woman. She completed her school from Viqarun Nisa Noon School and her higher secondary from Holy Cross College in Dhaka in the sixties. Around that time, her open-minded parents allowed their high school graduate daughter to go to the US for her undergraduate and graduate studies. Ameerah attended the Western College for Women in Ohio on a scholarship. The college was a wonderful community for young scholars. She later completed her Master’s in Community Organization and Planning from the School of Social Work at Columbia University. While studying there, she worked with underprivileged and immigrant communities. She then completed her second master’s degree in Business Administration from New York University.

In 1976, she joined as a junior officer in UNDP, Indonesia. Two years later, during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan she joined the UNDP, Afghanistan as an Assistant Resident Representative. She worked as UNDP’s Resident Representative in Laos and Malaysia from 1994 to 1997. For most of her career, she has worked for the betterment of people through development programs and in humanitarian work with underprivileged and displaced people and refugees who were deprived of education and faced the loss of culture.

After an illustrious career spanning four decades, she currently appears as guest lecturer at various universities, works with various foreign policy institutes and peace and security institutions, on the board of many non-governmental organisations, and addresses conferences and seminars. The achievement and success of this woman of action will inspire many women in Bangladesh to have courage, to dream, and to work hard to fulfill those dreams.