DHAKA, March 7, 2022 (BSS) - The People across the globe are now getting closer to know more about Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Bangladesh's great Liberation War following the UNESCO's recognition of Bangabandhu's landmark March 7 Speech as part of world's documentary heritage.
 
Bangabandhu's momentous speech, touted as indirect declaration of the country's independence in 1971, has been included in the Memory of the World International Register, maintained by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), in French capital of Paris in 2017.
 
The Memory of the World International Register, a list of documents having global significance, has the objective to ensure preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage in various parts of the world.
 
Bangabandhu's March 7 speech, which had changed the course of the country's history, has earlier been selected as one of the most rousing and inspirational wartime speeches in the last 2,500 years.
 
According to official sources, the historic 7 March Speech has so far been translated into a total of 17 foreign languages taking the epic speech closer to the people across the world.
 
"The speech has already been translated into six official languages of the United Nations and in many more ... we will be doing it," Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said here today.

Dr Momen expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for taking the initiative in this regard and also thanked UNESCO to recognize the Bangabandhu's historic speech.

"We are happy that the foreign ministry had worked for it ... Bangabandhu's speech is the only verbal one that has been included in the UNESCO's register," he said.
 
Officials familiar with the process said under the guidance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh Mission in Paris, led by its the then Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UNESCO M Shahidul Islam, had played the key role to proceed to earn UNESCO's recognition of Bangabandhu's March 7 speech.
 
In the beginning of 2016, the Bangladesh Mission in Paris started going through procedural aspects of inscribing documents on the MEMORY OF THE WORLD (MOW) INTERNATIONAL REGISTER.
 
The historic 7th March Speech of Bangabandhu became the obvious candidate for inscription on MOW International Register as it is one of the most influential speeches in the human history, said Islam, who is now Bangladesh Ambassador to the United States.

 
On May 25 in 2016, the Bangladesh Mission in Paris held a meeting with an expert of the MOW section to be sure before submitting the nomination file that it was technically sound.
 
Finally, the file was submitted electronically on 30 May 2016 by First Secretary Farhana Ahmed Chowdhury.
 
On April 10 in 2017, Chief of Universal Access and Preservation Boyan Radoykov wrote the Ambassador that the Register Sub-Committee (RSC) at its meeting from 26-28 February 2017 found the 7th March "speech of great historical significance and critical to the history of Bangladesh".
 
However, the RSC advised to submit the item relating to 'the camera, lens, tripod, microphone and Nagra recording machine used for filming the speech' as per the recommendation the Internal Advisory Committee (IAC).
 
On April 17, the Paris Mission, after consultation with Liberation War Museum, submitted electronically the revised nomination file.
 
The IAC meeting, held on October 24-27 in 2017, recommended inscription of "The Historic 7th March Speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman" for inscription on the UNESCO MOW International Register.
 
Finally, the IAC recommendation was endorsed by the UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova, and a press release from UNESCO dated 30 October 2017 confirmed the inscription.