Irangani Manel Abeysekera is a Sri Lankan diplomat. Having served as Sri Lankan Ambassador in Germany and Thailand, she is known as Sri Lanka's first woman career diplomat.

Education

She was born to E. W. Kannangara, a prominent civil servant who had served as the Clerk of the State Council. Educated at Methodist College, Colombo, she read history at Somerville College, Oxford. After joining the Overseas Service she studied modern languages at

New Hall, Cambridge New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

. Abeysekera is an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College.

Diplomatic career

After graduating from Oxford in 1957, she returned to Ceylon and applied to the newly formed

Ceylon Overseas Service The Sri Lanka Overseas Service (SLOS) ( Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදේශ සේවය; śrī laṁkā vidēśa sēvaya) which is most commonly referred to as the ''Sri Lanka Foreign Service'' is the foreign service of Sri Lank ...

through the Ceylon Civil Service, having become only female in the batch of eight selected candidates. Having been appointed to the service as the first female recruit, she became the first female diplomat in Sri Lanka. Having completed her modern languages training at Cambridge, she was made permanent in her appointment and took up the post of Third Secretary at the Ceylon's High Commission in London. Thereafter she was posted to Thailand as Charge d’ Affaires from 1970 to 1974. Returning to Sri Lanka in 1974 she took up the post of Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of External Affairs and Defence, where she played a major role in organizing the

Non-Aligned Summit The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that Non-belligerent, are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide. The movement originated in ...

in 1976. During her tuner she wrote the Foreign Ministry Manual of Protocol Procedure. She then went on to serve as Sri Lankan Ambassador to Thailand, there after Director General - Press and Publicity Division of the Foreign Ministry and finally became Sri Lankan Ambassador to Germany, having accreditation to Austria and Switzerland. She retired from the Foreign Service in 1993. At present, she works as a Consultant (Foreign Service Training), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is based at the

Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies The Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKI) is a foreign policy think tank currently based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka is ''ex officio'' the Chairman of LKI. LKI ...

and is also as a Consultant on Gender and Development

Family

She married Hector Abeysekera a UN diplomat.

References and external links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abeysekera, Manel 1933 births Living people Alumni of Methodist College, Colombo Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Alumni of New Hall, Cambridge Ambassadors of Sri Lanka to Germany Ambassadors of Sri Lanka to Thailand Sinhalese people Sri Lankan civil servants Sri Lankan diplomats Sri Lankan women ambassadors Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford Date of birth missing (living people)