Sri Lanka elected as Chair of Budget Committee of Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague

Sri Lanka was unanimously elected as the Chair of the Budget  Committee of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at the 192nd Administrative Council Meeting held at the Peace Palace in the Hague on Dec 01, the government news portal reported.

 The Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Netherlands,  Adam M.J. Sadiq was proposed for this post by Dr. Liesbeth Lijnzaad, Legal Adviser of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who chaired the meeting which elected Ambassador Sadiq by acclamation, a release from the Embassy of Sri Lanka in the Hague said.

The PCA  is an inter-governmental organization established in 1899 under the Hague Convention on the Pacific Settlement of International disputes  with its headquarters in in the Hague. The PCA facilitates  arbitration, conciliation, fact-finding and other dispute proceedings resolution proceedings among various combinations of States, State entities , intergovernmental organizations and private parties, the report said.

The PCA’s  Administrative Council, comprising  117 member states is the apex body of the organization and supervises the administration, budget and expenditure of the PCA. The financial supervision of the PCA is entrusted to the Financial Committee, consisting of 3 independent experts elected by the Administrative Council every three years.

The Budget Committee which is now chaired by Sri Lanka exists  in parallel to the Financial Committee to allow the PCA’s full membership to participate in the consideration of financial documents before they are submitted to the Administrative Council for approval.