NEW YORK: Sri Lanka will support the candidature of Justice Deepthi Amaratunga for the position of judge of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal (UNDT), when the UN General Assembly votes on the matter next week.
Voting for the position will take place at the sessions of the General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, 15 November. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is expected to garner diplomatic support for the appointment.
The Internal Justice Council of the UN has recommended Justice Amaratunga to the UN General Assembly for a full time position as a judge of the UNDT. This is the first occasion that the UN Internal Justice Council has recommended a Sri Lankan to the UN General Assembly to be considered for the position of judge. The United Nations General Assembly operates the UNDT and its Appellate Tribunal for the purpose of administering justice within the United Nations.
In 2009 the UN General Assembly established a system of administration of justice at the United Nations that addresses employment-related disputes. This system comprises the first instance United Nations Dispute Tribunal and an appellate-instance United Nations Appeals Tribunal. The judges of the Dispute Tribunal and the Appeals Tribunal are appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Internal Justice Council.
The members of the Council are: Carmen Artigas (Uruguay), external jurist nominated by staff; Dennis Byron (Saint Kitts and Nevis), jurist serving as Chair; Adama Dieng (Senegal), management representative; Louise Otis (Canada), external jurist nominated by management; and Matthew Perkins (United States of America), staff representative.
Currently, the UN Dispute Tribunal is composed of the following judges: Joëlle Adda (France), full-time judge in New York and President; Francis H. V. Belle (Barbados), half-time judge; Teresa Maria da Silva Bravo (Portugal), full-time judge in Geneva; Francesco Buffa (Italy), half-time judge; Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell (Trinidad and Tobago), half-time judge; Alexander W. Hunter, Jr. (United States), half-time judge; Agnieszka Klonowiecka-Milart (Poland), full-time judge in Nairobi; Rachel Sophie Sikwese (Malawi), half-time judge; and Margaret Tibulya (Uganda), half-time judge.
Justice Amaratunga is currently a judge of the High Court of Fiji. At times, he has been invited to sit as a judge of the Fiji Court of Appeal. He has 24 years of experience in the judiciary of Sri Lanka and Fiji. He functioned as the assistant secretary of the Judicial Service Commission of Sri Lanka in the years 2002 – 2003. He joined the judiciary of Fiji in 2010.
Justice Amaratunga passed out as an Attorney at Law in 1993. He holds an LLM in International Economic Law from the University of Warwick (UK), an MA in International Relations, an MBA and a BSc degree from the University of Colombo. He also has a postgraduate diploma in American Studies from the University of Colombo.
