Whenever any human rights organisation like Amnesty International, Transparency International or Human Rights Watch bring about allegations of extrajudicial killing, indiscriminate arrests, silencing the media or the lack of justice, the government rejects such allegations and discovers some sort of conspiracy. They accuse the concerned organisations of being biased.
This hardly is effective. The international community deems the narrative of these organisations more credible than that of the government. It will be a challenge for the foreign minister to retrieve the government from this culture of denial, interact with the international human rights organisations and create a credible reputation abroad.
Outside of these seven challenges, the foreign ministry has to be involved in two other issues, whether it wants to or not. One of these is the overseas labour market, for which the government has a separate ministry. But it is the responsibility of the foreign ministry to sort out the irregularities and problems that crop up in this area. The other challenge is human trafficking, a matter under the home ministry. But the foreign minister will face all sorts of pressure on this issue too.
Good luck, foreign minister.
* Md Touhid Hossain is former foreign secretary
* This column appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir and Rabiul Islam