Kamal Uddin Siddiqui

Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, ( _bn. কামাল উদ্দিন সিদ্দিকী) popularly known as Kamal Siddiqui, is an economist and social scientist from Bangladesh. In 1971, he actively participated in the Liberation War of Bangladesh. A career civil servant by profession, he served as the Principal Secretary to the government of Bangladesh until 2006. In 2005 he was elected for five years as the Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child of United Nations High Commission for Human Rights(UNHCR).

Latest

In February 2008, Dr. Kamal Siddiqui joined the Department of Management at the Monash University as Senior Lecturer. He will teach Economic diplomacy and trade promotion in addiiton to Public Management.

Education and Training

Kamal Siddiqui studied development economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of London in 1980. Earlier in 1975 he obtained an M.A. in Development Studies, with distinction, from the same institution. In 1974, he was awarded Postgraduate Diploma in Development Administration with distinction by the University of Leeds. After completing his high school and pre-university courses, he studied Applied Chemistry and obtained Master of Science in Applied Chemistry with a First Class from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Career

Kamal Siddiqui joined the then Civil Service of Pakistan in 1966. He was promoted as a permanenrt secretary to the government of Bangladesh in 1991. He served as the Secretary to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1991 till 1994. Later he served as the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister since October 2001. As Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister, he was involved in policy-making and monitoring of policy implementation at the highest level.

Concurrently he acted as the Chairman of Independent South Asia Commission on Poverty Alleviation (ISACPA) set up by SAARC Heads of States at the SAARC Summit held in Kathmandu in December 2001. He was also the Chairman of the National Steering Committee on Poverty Alleviation since September 2003. The task of this committee was to convert the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (IPRSP) into a PRSP through in-depth consultation with all stakeholders. Moreover, he intensively worked for children’s rigts and acted as Chairman of "Inter-Ministerial Standing Committee on Child Rights" since January 2002.
He served as the Rector of the Bangladesh Public Administration Trainign Centre for three years since 2001.
He also worked on the Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank as Alternate Executive Director.

Participation in War of Liberation

Bangladesh's war of liberation commenced in the midnight of 25 March 1971. At that time Kamal Siddique was serving as the Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of Norail. He at once made his mind, quit his job and went to India to participate in the war of liberation. He took arms in hand and participated in battles with occupational Pakistan army. After establishment of Bangladesh on 16 December 1971, he returned home and was appointed as the Deputy Commissioner (DC) and District Magistarte of the Khulna district. It has become a legend that, during his tenure as the District Magistarte of Khulna, following the armed struggle of indepedence, he bit up a Member of the Parliament of Khulna who entered his office with arms and declined to leave the arms outside.

Work for Children's Rights

He intensively worked for children’s rigts and acted as Chairman of Inter-Ministerial Standing Committee on Child Rights of the government of Bangladesh since January 2002. On 12 March 2003 he organized an International Workshop on Child Labour in Dhaka under the auspices of Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD). He led the Bangladesh delegation to the meeting of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva to review the implementation status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Bangladesh (second periodic report review session), held in September 2003. Since March 2004, he acted as the Chairman of the National Committee to suggest organizational set-up of the office of Independent Children Commissioner for Bangladesh.He led Bangladesh Government delegation to France, Norway and Sweden in February 2004 to study the Children Ombudsman institution in these countries with a view to setting up such an institution in Bangladesh. Since February 2005 he has been serving as the Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child of United Nations High Commission for Human Rights.

With regard to children's rights, his concrete achievements during the last three years include the release of a large number of children from jails, establishment of nurseries in prisons and safe homes, raising the age of criminal liability and converting correction centres for children into development centres. Recognized as a champion of children by the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in its landmark judgement in a child rights case in 2003, owing to these activities.

Publications

* Kamal Siddiqui (Editor in Chief) "Encyclopaedia of Flora and Fauna of Bangladesh": Scheduled publication date- August 2009; Asiatic Society, Dhaka.
* Siddiqui Dr. Kamal, "Megacity Governance in South Asia : A Comparative Study", 2004, Dhaka.
* Siddiqui Dr. Kamal, "Better days, better lives: Towards a strategy for implementing the convention on the rights of the child in Bangladesh, 2001, Dhaka.
* Siddiqui Dr. Kamal, "Local governance in Bangladesh: Leading issues and major challenges", 2000, Dhaka.
* Siddiqui Dr. Kamal, "Jagatpur, 1977-97: Poverty and social change in rural Bangladesh", 2000, Dhaka.
* Siddiqui Dr. Kamal, "Land Management in South Asia: A Comparative Study", 1997, Dhaka.
* Siddiqui Dr. Kamal, "Fiscal decentralisation in Bangladesh, 1991, Dhaka.
* Siddiqui Dr. Kamal, "An evaluation of the Grameen Bank operation", 1984, Dhaka.
* Siddiqui Dr. Kamal, Towards good governance in Bangladesh: Fifty unpleasant Essays", 1996, Dhaka.
* Siddiqui Dr. Kamal, "Local Government in Bangladesh", 1994, Dhaka.
* Siddiqui Dr. Kamal, "Social Formation in Dhaka City", 1993, Dhaka.
* Siddiqui Dr. Kamal, "Implementation of land reform in four villages of Bangladesh" (APDAC's policies and implementation of land reform series), 1980, Dhaka.
* Siddiqui Dr. Kamal, "The political economy of land reforms in Bangladesh", 1979, Dhaka.

External links

* [http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/95e478d2d1024065c1256fbf0039e7e2?OpenDocument Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights]
* [http://www.bangladeshsociology.org/Sardar%20-%20Review%20Essay,%201.2,%20PDF.pdf A review by Archana Ghosh of "Mega City Governance in South Asia"]
* [http://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/abt/intwep/zingel/Siddiqui1990.pdf A review of "Social Formation in Dhaka City"]
* [http://www.asia2015conference.org/pdfs/Siddiqui-speech.doc Speech delivered at Asia 2015 Conference held on 6-7 March 2006]
* [http://www.sdfbd.org/messages1.asp The Social Investment Program Project : Welcome Message]

Persondata
NAME= Siddiqui, Kamal Uddin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Kamal Siddiqui
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Bengali Economist
DATE OF BIRTH= 22 October, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH= Comilla, Bangladesh
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=