Saber Hossain Chowdhury MP

Saber Hossain Chowdhury was first elected as Member of the Parliament of Bangladesh in 1996 and was elected for his second five year term in December 2008. Formerly, he served as the Organising Secretary of the Bangladesh Awami League, and Political Secretary to the then Leader of the Opposition, Sheikh Hasina Wazed (the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh).

Whilst in Opposition between 2001 to 2008, he championed human rights and individual liberties, was recognized as a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International, and demanded urgent reforms in the Caretaker Government System and the Election Commission.

He is the first parliamentarian in Bangladesh to have initiated legislation on prohibition of Custodial Torture and Deaths, domestic violence, rights of slum dwellers and repeal of the Leper’s Act which promotes segregation. An active member of PNND, he successfully piloted a Resolution in Bangladesh Parliament in April 2010, in support of UN Secretary General’s 5 point plan calling for Nuclear Disarmament and Non Proliferation.

In April 2010, he was elected as the First Vice President of Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union's (IPU) First Standing Committee on Peace and International Security. He is also the elected Vice President from Asia Pacific Geopolitical Group in this Standing Committee.

Mr. Chowdhury is the Chair of Bangladesh Parliament’s influential and pro-active All Party Group on Climate Change and Environment – a platform in which a third of all MPs in current parliament are members. He is also a Member of the Commonwealth Parliamentarians Association (CPA) Task Force on Climate Change.