Mr. Saber Hossain Chowdhury is a 5-time elected former Member of Parliament of Bangladesh National Parliament. In 1996, he first served as a Member of Parliament from Dhaka-6 Constituency comprising Sabujbag and Motijheel and then from 2008 to 2024, he successfully served as a Member of Parliament for 4 consecutive terms from Dhaka-9 Parliamentary Constituency consisting of Khilgaon, Sabujbag and Mugda. He served as Honorable Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the Cabinet of the 12th National Parliament. Saber Hossain Chowdhury first joined the Cabinet as Deputy Minister of Shipping Ministry in 1999 and later successfully served as the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives.
As the first and only Bangladeshi he served as the 28th President of the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) from 2014-2017. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to global peace and democracy, the organization conferred on him the post of honorary president for lifetime. The Inter-Parliamentary Union has 45,000 members from the national parliaments of 179 countries representing 6.5 billion people in the world. Founded in 1889, the IPU is primarily the world's great parliament-based organization, which organizes dialogue on building functioning parliaments and strong democracies worldwide.
Mr. Chowdhury has played and continues to play important roles and responsibilities in the National Parliament, Council of Ministers, political parties and sports administration. He served as the organizing secretary-1 of Bangladesh Awami League from 2001-2008 as the Dhaka division as well as political secretary to Awami League president, then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina. He served as the president of Bangladesh Cricket Board from 1996-2001. Under his successful leadership, Bangladesh achieved full membership/Test status of the International Cricket Council. During his tenure as President, the Bangladesh Cricket Board was awarded the Freedom Award and Mr. Chowdhury was given an honorary life membership of the MCC for his contribution to world cricket.
As a legislator he proposed a new provision in the Constitution of Bangladesh for the protection and development of environment and biodiversity (Article 18 of the Constitution). Also, with his kind intervention and proposal, the Prohibition of Prisoner Torture and Custodial Deaths Act was passed in the Great National Parliament. Besides, the 'Lepers Act' has been passed by the National Parliament to abolish the segregation of lepers from the society and ensure normal treatment. Mr. Chowdhury's immense contributions highlight the severity of the existential crisis and recurrence of disasters in climate change, resource sustainability, loss of biodiversity, food security, proposed declaration of a planetary emergency due to rising sea level pressure.
He holds a BA in Politics and Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He also holds a Diploma in Law from the University of Westminster and has completed the academic stage for admission to the UK Bar.
As an active Member of Parliament, Mr. Saber Hossain Chowdhury was the Honorable Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Planning in the 11th National Parliament. At the same time, in June 2023, he played an important and unprecedented role in the leadership of Bangladesh and less developed countries in the global climate talks as the special envoy of the honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on environment and climate change.