Sinha Basnayake, PC is a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

n lawyer. He was a former Director of the General Legal Division of the

United Nations Office of Legal Affairs The United Nations Office of Legal Affairs is a United Nations office currently administered by Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and Legal Counsel of the United Nations Miguel de Serpa Soares. History Established in 1946, the United ...

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS INDEPENDENT EXPERTS TO REDESIGN, SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
/ref> and a member of the Internal Justice Council. Son of the prominent lawyer Hema Henry Basnayake, QC; he was educated at the

Royal College, Colombo Royal College, Colombo is a selective entry boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started as a private school by Rev Joseph Marsh in 1835, it was established as the Colombo Academy by Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton in Janua ...

and graduated with a first-class in law from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. After qualifying as a barrister he joined the UN as a Legal Officer in the International Trade Law Branch of the Office of Legal Affairs, eventually becoming its Director. Appointed a

President's Counsel President's Counsel (postnominal PC) is an eminent lawyer who is appointed by the President of Sri Lanka to be one of the "President's Counsel learned in the law". The term is also recognized as an honorific which replaced the practice of appoint ...

by the government of Sri Lanka, he has served in many committees of the UN. In 1999, he served as the Secretary of the group of legal experts of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda; in 2004 he served as a member of the Special Panel set up by the Secretary-General to investigate and report on the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad; and in 2005 he served as the Secretary of the Group set up by the Secretary-General to study the criminal accountability of staff and experts on mission serving in peacekeeping operations, as suggested by the Prince Zeid report on a comprehensive strategy to eliminate future sexual exploitation and abuse in United Nations peacekeeping operations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Basnayake, Sinha Living people Sri Lankan officials of the United Nations Sinhalese people Sri Lankan lawyers Alumni of Royal College, Colombo Alumni of the University of Oxford President's Counsels (Sri Lanka) Year of birth missing (living people)