Narrow screen resolution Wide screen resolution Auto adjust screen size Increase font size Decrease font size Default font size default color grey color red color blue color

www.slmission.com

Home Ambassador
Ambassador
Dr. Palitha T.B. Kohona served as the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka until his appointment as Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. Prior to this he served as the Secretary-General of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) established by the Government of Sri Lanka. 

Early Life
Dr. Palitha Kohona who hails from Matale, Sri Lanka, received his secondary education in Sri Lanka at St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia.  He proceeded to obtain a LL.B (Hons) at the University of Sri Lanka and a LL.M from the Australian National University.  He obtained a Doctorate from Cambridge University, UK, for the thesis – ‘The Regulation of International Economic Relations through Law’, subsequently published by Kluwer, Netherlands.  He is also an Attorney-at-Law, Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.
 
International Career

Dr. Kohona was a member of the Sri Lanka delegation to the UN General Assembly in 2006 and 2008.  He has led official level delegations to a range of countries on bilateral matters.  During his tenure as the Secretary-General of the Government Peace Secretariat (2006), he participated in several rounds of peace negotiations with the LTTE in Geneva and led the delegation to talks in Oslo. 

From 1995-2006 He served as the Chief of the Treaty Section, Department of Legal Affairs of the UN.  As Chief of the Treaty Section he was a recipient of the UN21 Pin.

 Prior to joining the UN, He was with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of Australia where he held the position of Head of the Trade and Investment Section.  He was a member of the Uruguay Round negotiating team of Australia with specific responsibility for the institutional mechanism and the dispute settlement unit. 

In 1989 he was posted to the Australian Permanent Mission in Geneva with specific responsibility for environmental issues including the Rio Process.  In Geneva he chaired the negotiating group that developed the compliance mechanism under the Montreal Protocol to the Convention on the Ozone Layer and was a member of the Working Group on the liability mechanism under the Basel Convention on Hazardous Wastes.  In 1988 he led the Australian delegation to the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board.

He returned to Sri Lanka on the invitation of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to assume office as the Secretary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) in 2006. 

He is fluent in Sinhala, English and French.
 

Print / PDF