SRI LANKAN CANDIDATE FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMISSION DR.

UNCLAS COLOMBO 001931 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INS AND IO/UNP SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL UNGA CE SUBJECT: SRI LANKAN CANDIDATE FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMISSION DR. AMRITH ROHAN PERERA REF: A) STATE 180503 B) COLOMBO 1848 ¶1. As reported ref (b),the Government of Sri Lanka had pledged to support U.S. candidate Michael Matheson for the International Law Commission (ILC). MFA also asked the U.S. to support its candidate for the ILC, Dr. Amrith Rohan Perera. Dr. Perera is well and favorably known to us as the incumbent legal advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We have every reason to think he would be a good choice for the ILC. ¶2. Brief CV of Dr. Perera follows: 2004 Served as a member of the Club de Madrid's working group on "Legal responses to Terrorism" in the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security to mark the first anniversary of the terrorist attack in Madrid; Legal advisor to Sri Lanka's delegation to the SAARC Heads of State Summit (He has held this position since 1986.) 2003 Represented Sri Lanka at the meeting of SAARC senior officials and legal experts negotiating the Additional Protocol to the SAARC Convention; Served on the Advisory Board of the Manchester Journal of International Economic Law; Sri Lankan delegate to meetings of the UN Human Rights Committee considering national reports of Sri Lanka as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) He served the same function in 1993 and ¶1995. 2002 Served as a panelist at: -- Commonwealth Secretariat's Working Group on International Terrorism at the Oxford Conference European Parliament's Conference on a Transatlantic Dialog in Combating International Terrorism, convened by the European Parliament and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium -- United Nations roundtable conference to combat terrorism in New York 2000 Elected Chairman of the UN Ad-hoc Committee on Measures to eliminate International Terrorism 1997-1999 Vice-Chairman of the UN Ad-hoc Committee on Measures to eliminate International Terrorism 1997 Published: "International Law-Changing Horizons," a collection of essays on international law "International Terrorism," a doctoral thesis on international initiatives to prevent and combat terrorism and the development of international law Dr. Perera regularly contributes articles on international law to legal journals, including the Commonwealth Law Bulletin, the American Review of International Arbitration, Sri Lanka Law College Law Review, and the Sri Lanka Journal of International Law. 1995 Legal advisor to the Sri Lankan delegation to the conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 1994 Member of the Sri Lanka delegations at meetings of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (He held the same position in 1989 as well.) 1990 Chairman of the SAARC group of legal experts meeting on combating drug abuse and drug trafficking 1980 Received a United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Fellowship (As a part of the Fellowship, he followed a course in Public International Law at The Hague Academy of International Law and then underwent practical training at the Legal Departments of both the International Bank of for Re-Construction and Development (IBRD) and the International Civil Aviation Organization.) As an undergraduate, Dr. Perera served as editor of the Law Journal published by the Aquinas College of Business Studies. Currently, he serves on the Panel of Consulting Editors of the Manchester Journal of International Economic Law, the Sri Lanka Journal of International Law, and the Sri Lanka Law College Law Review. Dr. Perera has an excellent command of English, is a native speaker of Sinhala, and has a basic knowledge of French. BLAKE