Obituary: Jayantha Dhanapala (J.C.B.) – (1956, Lemuel)
Veteran diplomat and former UN Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala (85) passed away at the Kandy National Hospital -Hospital Sources- dailymirror.lk
May his soul rest in Peace.
He also a distinguished old boy of Trinity College, Kandy and winner of Ryde Gold Medal for best student in 1956 !
Jayantha DHANAPALA
Member of the Board of Sponsors of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Distinguished member of Constitutional Council
Jayantha Dhanapala is widely known for his Presidency of the 1995 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension Conference. He served as United Nations Under-Secretary General for Disarmament and Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the U.S.
Jayantha Dhanapala served as the 11th President of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs from 2007 to 2017. He is a Distinguished Associate Fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and a member of several other advisory boards of international bodies. Dhanapala served in London, Beijing, Washington D.C., New Delhi, and Geneva as the Sri Lankan diplomat and represented Sri Lanka at several international conferences, chairing many of them including the historic NPT Review and Extension Conference of 1995. He also served as the Director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) from 1987 to 1992. Dhanapala has received many international awards and honorary doctorates, and has published five books and several articles in international journals and lectured widely. Dhanapala has been active internationally through his membership of several international groups such as the Canberra Commission for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons from 1995 to 1996, the International Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission from 2003 to 2005, the Governing Board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) from 2005 to 2010, the International Advisory Group of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 2003 to 2007, the United Nations University Council from 2003 to 2010 (Chairman for the year 2007-2008), the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, the Advisory Council of the Stanford Institute for International Studies, the International Board of the Bonn International Center for Conversion, the International Advisory Board of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, and as Honorary President of the International Peace Bureau from 2003 to 2007. In November 2007, Dhanapala was unanimously elected President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. From January to April 2008 Dhanapala became the first Simons Visiting Professor in International Law and Human Security in the School of International Studies of the Simon Fraser University. Following a stint in the private sector in Sri Lanka, he ranked first in the competitive examination seeking entry into the Sri Lankan Foreign Service in 1965 and served thereafter in diplomatic postings in London, Beijing, Washington D.C., New Delhi (as Deputy High Commissioner), culminating in Ambassadorial appointments in Geneva (1984-7) accredited to the UN and in Washington D.C. (1995-7). During his diplomatic career, he engaged pro-actively and innovatively in political, disarmament, economic, trade, human rights and cultural matters in both bilateral and multilateral contexts.
