Sinha Basnayake, PC is a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

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 (OLA) is a United Nations office currently administered by Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and Legal Counsel of the United Nations Elinor Hammarskjöld. History Established in 1946, the Uni ...

and a member of th
UN Internal Justice Council
Son of the prominent lawyer

Hema Henry Basnayake Hema Henry Basnayake, QC (3 August 1902 – ?) was the 31st Chief Justice of Ceylon as well as the 29th Attorney General and 16th Solicitor General. He was appointed in 1956 succeeding acting Chellappah Nagalingam and was Chief Justice unti ...

, QC; he was educated at the

Royal College, Colombo Royal College, Colombo also known as; Royal Colombo, Colombo Royal College or Colombo Royal) is a Single-sex education, boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started by Joseph Marsh (priest), Joseph Mar ...

and graduated with a first-class in law from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. 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 A president's counsel ( postnominal PC) is an eminent lawyer who is appointed by the President of Sri Lanka as an individual "learned in the law". The term is an honorific that replaced the Queen's Counsel (QC), which Sri Lanka ceased appointing ...

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. * 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. * In 2009, he was a member of a UN Board of Inquiry that reviewed and investigated several incidents in the Gaza Strip in which death or injuries occurred at, and/or damage was done to, United Nations premises or in the course of United Nations 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)