Dr Dayan Jayatilleka leaves Geneva for Colombo this weekend, having served as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, since June 1^st 2007. Thursday, August 20^th 2009 was his last day of service in that post

During his tenure he served as Chairman of the Governing body of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Vice President of the UN Human Rights Council (UN HRC), Chairperson of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on the Effective Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, Coordinator of an agenda item of the Conference on Disarmament (CD), Facilitator/ negotiator for the Asian Region at the Durban Review Conference against Racism, and Coordinator of the Asian Group of the UN HRC as well as the UNCTAD.

The accompanying photograph shows President Lula da Silva of Brazil perusing Dr. Jayatilleka’s book Fidel's Ethics of Violence: the Moral Dimension of the Political Thought of Fidel Castro. Also shown in the photograph are Ambassador Jayatilleka and Ambassador Maria Nazareth Farani Azevedo of Brazil.

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations 

Geneva  

20 August 2009