H. E. Ms. Saida Muna Tasneem
Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK, Ireland
& Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the IMO
Twitter handle: @MunaTasneem 
Ms. Saida Muna Tasneem joined as High Commissioner for Bangladesh to the Court of St. James on 30th November 2018 and is also accredited as Ambassador of Bangladesh to the Republic of Ireland. She is Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organisation and Board of Governor member of the Commonwealth. Prior to taking up her assignment in London, Ms. Tasneem served as Bangladesh Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand with concurrent accreditation as Bangladesh Ambassador to Cambodia and as Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the UNESCAP from 2014-2018.
Earlier Ms Tasneem served in various multilateral diplomatic positions including Deputy and Counsellor at the Bangladesh Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, as Minister (Political and Press) at the Bangladesh High Commission in London and to the Commonwealth, and as Director General(United Nations and Human Rights) and as Director General(External Publicity) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2009-2014.
High Commissioner Tasneem has been championing mental health and wellbeing as well as Autism Spectrum and Neuro-Developmental Disorder(ASD and DD) issues for the past decade at the Commonwealth, at the COP26, the Climate Vulnerable Forum, at the UNESCAP and UN General Assembly. With Tasneem’s relentless initiative and leadership as a Commonwealth Board of Governor member, Bangladesh organized with Commonwealth Chair Rwanda, the first Commonwealth high-level side event “Rethinking Mental Health: A Commonwealth Call to Support, Care and Transform’’ at the Kigali CHOGM 2022 and incorporated mental health into Commonwealth’s agenda. High Commissioner Tasneem also led the negotiations for the adoption the first Dhaka-Kigali Compact on Mental Health at the 2022 Kigali CHOGM and in the drafting and adoption of the first UN resolution on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and NDD and affordable universal health care in 2012. In 2017, as Permanent Representative to the UNESCAP Ambassador Tasneem organised a high-level panel debate on mainstreaming persons with mental and neurological disability in the UN Convention on Persons with Disabilities during the midpoint review of the Asian and Pacific Decade of the persons with disabilities in Beijing. At present, she is actively engaged with the HM King Charles’ British Asian Trust’s mental health work in Bangladesh and also with HM The Queen Consort mentored mental health organizations in the UK. Tasneem also led deliberations at the COP 26 on behalf of Bangladesh’s CVF Presidency on mental health aspects pf victims of climate vulnerability at the Chatom House and Imperial College podcasts.
High Commissioner Tasneem served as a senior expert in various National Committees on security issues including the National Defence Policy of Bangladesh drafting Committee, revision of Bangladesh's War Book, Member Secretary to the National Committee on UN Security Council Resolutions and National Task Force on repatriation of Myanmar Refugees, member of National Committee on Anti-money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism, National Task Force on Anti-money Laundering and Repatriation, and served as the Women in Development (WID) focal point for Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Apart from Mental Health and ASD, High Commissioner Tasneem specializes in countering terrorism and security issues, Women Empowerment, Climate Change and sustainable energy, migration and development, communications, and public diplomacy.
Saida Muna Tasneem has been awarded the prestigious 'Diplomat of the Year 2021 Award' by the renowned Diplomat Magazine in London for her "outstanding contribution to climate diplomacy,". Earlier Tasneem received the Atish Dipankar Peace Gold Medal in February 2017 for her outstanding contribution to enhancing interfaith harmony between Buddhism and Islam. She also received the prestigious Thai Red Cross Royal Decoration order of the second class from HRH Princess Siirindhorn of Thailand in November 2017 for her extraordinary contribution to support philanthropic works for disadvantaged and mentally challenged Thai children. Ms Tasneem was Awarded MSc in Public Policy from the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London and BSc Chemical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka.
