Dr. Rohan Perera

Rohan Perera elected to Int’l Law Commission
Dr.Rohan Perera, P.C., Legal Advisor of the Foreign Ministry and the Sri Lanka candidate for the International Law Commission, was elected by the UN General Assembly in New York on November 16, polling 138 votes and securing one of the seven seats allocated to the Asian region.

Eleven candidates from the Asian region contested these seven seats. Dr. Perera received 138 votes along with the candidate from Qatar. The candidate from Japan received the highest votes with 144 followed by India and China with 141 and 140 votes each respectively. The candidate from Indonesia received 135 votes followed by Jordan with 122 votes.

Dr.Perera has served for over thirty years in the Foreign Ministry, initially as assistant Legal Advisor and thereafter, as a legal advisor and is also the current chairman of the UN ad-hoc Committee on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism which recently concluded the International Convention on the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. The ad-hoc Committee is currently negotiating a comprehensive Convention on Terrorism.

Dr.Perera also serves as a member of the group of legal advisors and constitutional experts appointed by the President to advice the All Party Representatives Committee on a constitutional framework. The International Law Commission was established in 1949 by the General Assembly and entrusted with codification and progressive development of international law.

The Commission comprises 34 members elected on a regional basis for a period of five years. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties are among the achievements of the Commission. It is currently entrusted with the preparation of Draft Articles on topics such as diplomatic protection, shared natural resources and the responsibility of international organizations.