Claims that Rabab Fatima became UN president in 2016 were false
A video has spread on the social media platform Facebook claiming that Rabab Fatima, Bangladesh’s former permanent representative to the United Nations, became president of the United Nations in 2016, and that this history was made under the government of the deposed prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the claim is not true. In 2016, Rabab Fatima held no post at the UN at all.
On September 24, a video was posted from a Facebook page named “Mujib Amar Chetona.” The video’s caption claimed, “Rabab Fatima, UN president, 2016. BNP just thinks someone of theirs became UN president, but Sheikh Hasina made this history before them. 🇧🇩” (verbatim).
As of the writing of this report, the post had received more than 6,500 reactions, been shared 277 times, and been viewed more than 138,000 times.
The video was spread with the same claim from several Facebook pages (1, 2) and profiles (1, 2).
To verify the claim, Dismislab examined a timeline of Rabab Fatima’s career. This found that in 2016, she was serving as Bangladesh’s ambassador to Japan. She later took charge as Bangladesh’s permanent representative to the UN on December 6, 2019.
Following this, Rabab Fatima held various positions at different UN bodies in stages. In 2020, she became president of UNICEF’s Executive Board. In December of the same year, she was elected vice president of the executive boards of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS.
In 2022, she was appointed UN Under-Secretary-General. UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced her appointment as high representative for least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs), and small island developing states (SIDS).
In February 2022, she was elected the first woman president of the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC). In June of the same year, she was appointed UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States.
She currently serves as head of the UN mission in Afghanistan.
In other words, none of these appointments occurred in 2016, and none of them was the post of UN president.
It is worth noting that only two Bangladeshis have so far served as president of the UN General Assembly. Humayun Rashid Choudhury, former foreign minister, first held this position as president of the 41st session in 1986-87. Nearly four decades later, on September 8 this year, Foreign Adviser Dr. Khalilur Rahman was sworn in as president of the 81st session.
