Kamal Hossain

For other people with the same name, see Kamal Hossain (disambiguation).

Kamal Hossain
কামাল হোসেন
Hossain in March 2013
1st Law Minister of Bangladesh
In office
January 1972 – March 1973
PresidentAbu Sayeed Chowdhury
Prime MinisterSheikh Mujibur Rahman
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byManoranjan Dhar
Parliamentary groupAwami League
3rd Foreign Minister of Bangladesh
In office
March 1973 – August 1975
PresidentAbu Sayeed Chowdhury
Mohammad Mohammadullah
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Prime MinisterSheikh Mujibur Rahman
Preceded byAbdus Samad Azad
Succeeded byAbu Sayeed Chowdhury
2nd Petroleum Minister of Bangladesh
In office
1974–1975
PresidentMohammad Mohammadullah
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Prime MinisterSheikh Mujibur Rahman
Preceded byMofiz Chowdhury
Personal details
Born (1937-04-20) 20 April 1937 (age 87)
Calcutta, Bengal, British India
NationalityBangladeshi
Political partyGano Forum
Spouse
​
(m. 1963)​
ChildrenSara Hossain, Dina Hossain
Alma mater
[1]
OccupationLawyer, politician and academic
Known forOne of the key authors of the Constitution of Bangladesh

Kamal Hossain (born 20 April 1937), better known as Dr. Kamal, is a founding leader, lawyer and politician of Bangladesh. He is known as the "Father of the Bangladeshi Constitution" and regarded as an icon of secular democracy in the Indian subcontinent.[2][3] Hossain currently heads his own law firm in Dhaka. He retired from political activities and from the post of president of Gano Forum in October 2023. [4]

Hossain studied in the United States at the University of Notre Dame and in the United Kingdom at the University of Oxford. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in Lincoln's Inn in 1959. Hossain enrolled as an advocate in the High Court of East Pakistan. He worked on cases with prominent Pakistani lawyers early in his legal career, including with former Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. Hossain often worked on missing persons cases during the regime of military ruler Ayub Khan. Between 1961 and 1968, he taught law at Dhaka University. Hossain was the lawyer for the Awami League and its leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during the Agartala Conspiracy Case. He was elected as vice-chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council in 1970 before the breakup of Pakistan. In 1971, he was part of the Awami League's negotiation team for the transfer of power after the 1970 general election. Hossain was imprisoned in West Pakistan with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during the war of independence that transformed East Pakistan into Bangladesh.

Hossain served in Bangladesh's first post-independence government from 1972 to 1975 as Law Minister and chairman of the drafting committee in the Constituent Assembly. Hossain led the process which produced the 1972 Constitution of Bangladesh. Under Hossain's leadership of the drafting committee, Bangladesh became the first constitutionally secular state in South Asia.[5] He then served as Foreign Minister, and led Bangladesh to join the United Nations in 1974. As Energy Minister, Hossain later enacted the Bangladesh Petroleum Act. Hossain's legal reforms were emulated in India and China, including in India's 42nd constitutional amendment and during Chinese economic reform in energy law.[6] Some of his reforms in Bangladesh were repealed by the military dictatorship of Ziaur Rahman in 1977. Secularism was reinstated in Bangladesh's constitution by the Supreme Court in 2010.

Hossain survived the 1975 Bangladesh coup while on a tour of Yugoslavia.[7] He became based in Oxford University during the late 1970s as a visiting research fellow. In 1981, he ran as an opposition candidate for president against Abdus Sattar. Hossain fell out with Awami League president Sheikh Hasina during the 1990s, and formed the Gono Forum (People's Forum) party. Hossain has often worked with the United Nations and the Commonwealth of Nations. He was also considered as a candidate for the post of UN Secretary General.

Described by journalist Mizanur Rahman Khan as the "conscience of the nation",[8] Hossain was compared to Adlai Stevenson by The New York Times in 1981.[9] Hossain has been a leading lawyer in the field of human rights, energy law, corporate law and international arbitration. He served on the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal and as UN Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan.[10] Hossain has been a member of tribunals dealing with maritime disputes between Malaysia and Singapore and Guyana and Suriname. He was a two-term member of the UN Compensation Commission. He is a former vice-president of the International Law Association, former president of the Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association; and chairman of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) and the South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies (SAILS).

  1. ^ "Lecture Series - Biography - Dr. Kamal Hossain, Barrister, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh" (PDF). The United Nations Office of Legal Affairs. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  2. ^ Faisal Mahmud (13 October 2018). "Bangladesh election: Allying with Kamal Hossain boosts Khaleda Zia's party against Sheikh Hasina". Scroll.in. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  3. ^ "In Bangladesh, a Secular Icon and the Centre-Right Opposition Join Hands".
  4. ^ "Dr Kamal elected Gono Forum's emeritus president". The Daily Star. 27 October 2023. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  5. ^ "Struggle for the Soul of Bangladesh". Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. 5 December 2014.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference commonwealthoralhistories was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Dr Kamal contradicts Hasina's comments". The Daily Star. UNB. 20 May 2014.
  8. ^ Khan, Mizanur Rahman (21 April 2017). "'Conscience of the nation' turns 80". Prothom Alo (Opinion). Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  9. ^ "In Bangladesh Election, The Aura Of Two Dead Leaders Is Pervasive". The New York Times. 14 November 1981. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
  10. ^ "Dr Kamal Hossain" (PDF). United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law. Retrieved 24 September 2018.