Radhika to speak at Walpola Rahula Institute on Tuesday

Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy will speak on ‘Standing Up for Human Rights’ at the monthly forum for open dialogue at the Walpola Rahula Institute, Buddhist Avenue, Parliament Road, Kotte on Tuesday (19 February) at 4 p.m. 

Her talk will focus on human rights, women’s rights and children’s rights.

This is the sixth discussion of the series organised by the Walpola Rahula Institute.

Radhika Coomaraswamy received her B.A. from Yale University, her J.D. from Columbia University and her LL.M. from Harvard University. She completed her high school education at the United Nations International School in New York. In Sri Lanka, she was the Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies from 1982 to 2005 and the Chairperson of the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission from 2003 to 2006.

Internationally, Radhika Coomaraswamy served as UN Under-Secretary-General and as Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict from 2006 until her retirement in 2012. 

Earlier, from 1994 to 2003, she was the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, an independent expert attached to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. 

In 2014, the UN Secretary General asked Radhika Coomaraswamy to lead the Global Study to review the 15-year implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. 

She was asked to deliver the Grotius Lecture of the American Association of International Law in 2013.