The government has appointed internationally renowned human rights advocate Irene Khan as Bangladesh’s permanent representative to the United Nations, granting her the rank of state minister.

The Cabinet Division issued a gazette notification on Wednesday confirming her contractual appointment.

According to the notification, Irene Khan will receive the rank, salary, allowances and other benefits of a state minister while serving as Bangladesh’s permanent representative and ambassador to the UN.

She will succeed Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury, the current permanent representative to Bangladesh’s UN Mission. Foreign ministry officials said Chowdhury is set to become the country’s next foreign secretary.

Khan has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression since Aug 1, 2020, becoming the first woman to hold the mandate since it was established in 1993.

An internationally recognised advocate for human rights, gender equality and social justice, she also teaches at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

She was secretary general of London-based Amnesty International from 2001 to 2009, becoming the first woman to lead the global human rights organisation. During her tenure, Amnesty expanded its work on economic, social and cultural rights alongside political and civil rights, and launched its first global campaign to end violence against women and girls.

From 2012 to 2019, Khan headed the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the rule of law and sustainable development.

She previously served as a visiting professor at the State University of New York Law School in 2011 and as chancellor of the University of Salford in the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2015.

Khan began her professional career with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where she worked for 21 years in headquarters and field operations, including as chief of mission in India.

She has also served on the World Bank Gender Advisory Council, the UNAIDS High Level Panel on HIV Prevention and Human Rights, and the UN Global Compact Advisory Council. She has been a governing board member of the Overseas Development Institute in the UK, BRAC and Uganda-based Barefoot Law.

Born in Bangladesh, Khan studied at University of Manchester and Harvard Law School. She has received several international honours, including the Sydney Peace Prize, for her contribution to human rights.

The government has extended restrictions on government-funded overseas travel for public officials in the ongoing fiscal year and tightened rules on the purchase of official vehicles as part of efforts to reduce public expenditure.

The Finance Division issued a notification on Wednesday saying the measures are aimed at ensuring the proper use of limited public resources, bringing inflation to a tolerable level and maintaining macroeconomic stability.

Under the directive, government officials and employees will continue to be barred from attending seminars, symposiums and workshops abroad at government expense.

The notification also imposes stricter controls on the purchase of vehicles under both development and operational budgets.

Only vehicles included in the approved Table of Organisation and Equipment (TO&E) that are more than 10 years old may be replaced, it said.

New government institutions will require prior approval from the Finance Division before purchasing TO&E-listed vehicles.

The Finance Division also instructed all government agencies to suspend expenditure from all types of block allocations.

Funding for the purchase of all categories of vehicles, including motor vehicles, watercraft and aircraft, has also been halted.

However, vehicles used for transporting personnel rather than for personal use may be replaced if they are more than a decade old.

Newly established government institutions may also procure such vehicles only with Finance Division approval.

The notification also states that, except for ambulances and vehicles used for security purposes, all replacement or newly purchased government cars and jeeps must be fully electric.

The government said the measures are intended to curb operational spending while supporting broader efforts to maintain fiscal discipline and economic stability.

Power Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood has said the government’s ability to renegotiate costs, including capacity charges, under contracts signed with private power plants by the previous administration is limited because those agreements carry sovereign guarantees.

However, he told parliament on Wednesday that the government is negotiating with power producers to eliminate late payment fees on overdue bills.

The minister made the remarks while responding to a supplementary question from Jamaat lawmaker Mardia Mumtaz during the parliamentary session.

Mardia asked whether the government had a concrete plan to reduce capacity charges, which account for a significant share of electricity subsidies and overall power sector costs despite recent tariff increases.

In reply, Iqbal said the previous government had provided sovereign guarantees in contracts with private power companies.

“A sovereign guarantee is a guarantee by the state. Cancelling such guarantees requires a legal process that takes considerable time,” he said.