Courtesy of The Nation, 15 November 2014
Jayantha Dhanapala, a former U.N. under-secretary-general for disarmament affairs (1998-2003) and a relentless advocate for a world free of nuclear weapons, will be the recipient of the 2014 International Achievement Award for Nuclear Disarmament sponsored by Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency. “Short of actually dismantling nuclear devices himself,” says Dr. Randy Rydell, until recently a senior political affairs officer at the U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs, “he has contributed enormously in constructing a solid foundation upon which the world community will one day fulfill this great ambition.”
Current president of the Nobel Prize-winning Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (since 2007) and a former Sri Lankan ambassador to the United States, Dhanapala played a crucial role in the 1995 Conference of States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
The award – which is co-sponsored by the Tokyo-based Soka Gakkai International (SGI), a 12-million-strong, lay Buddhist non-governmental organisation (NGO) which is leading a global campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons – will be presented at an official ceremony at the United Nations Nov. 17.
The event, to be attended by senior U.N. officials, ambassadors and representatives of the media and civil society, is being hosted by the U.N. Correspondents’ Association (UNCA).
The past recipients of the IPS International Achievement Award for their contributions to peace and development include: Brazilian President Lula da Silva (2008), U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (2006), Global Call to Action Against Poverty (2005), Group of 77 developing countries (2000), U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1995), and Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari (1991). (IPS)
– See more at: http://www.nation.lk/edition/breaking-news/item/35187-dhanapala-to-receive-ips-award-for-nuclear-disarmament.html#sthash.kbuKvgzU.dpuf
BIOGRAPHY from http://www.jayanthadhanapala.com/biography.html
| Jayantha Dhanapala was invited to manage the peace process by the government in mid-2004 after a distinguished career as a national and international diplomat, peace-builder, disarmament expert and articulate champion of non-discriminatory global norms, the rule of law, the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and general concerns of developing countries in the collective interest of the international community. He functioned as Secretary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process till the end of November 2005.He relinquished duties to devote more time to bid for the post of Secretary General of the United Nations which concluded with his withdrawal from the vote to facilitate a consensus decision in favour of an Asian Candidate.Dhanapala has continued to be active internationally through his membership of several international groups such as the International Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (vide its report on www.wmdcommission.org); the Governing Board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI); the International Advisory Group of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) 2003-2007; the United Nations University Council till 2010 (Chairman for the year 2007-8); the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces; the Advisory Council of the Stanford Institute for International Studies; the International Board of the Bonn International Center for Conversion; the International Advisory Board of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies; and as Honorary President of the International Peace Bureau (2003-2007). In November 2007 Dhanapala was unanimously elected President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. He is the eleventh person to hold this position following in the footsteps of founder Bertrand Russell, Dorothy Hodgkin, Sir Joseph Rotblat and Dr.M.S.Swaminathan. From January to April 2008 Dhanapala became the first Simons Visiting Professor in International Law and Human Security in the School of International Studies of the Simon Fraser University.Dhanapala has had a distinguished career spanning the private sector, government, the United Nations and academia from 1962–2004 interacting with different levels of society including Heads of State and Government and a wide diversity of nationalities. Following a stint in the private sector in Sri Lanka, he ranked first in seeking entry into the Sri Lankan Foreign Service in 1965 and served thereafter in diplomatic postings in London, Beijing, Washington D.C., New Delhi and Geneva, culminating in Ambassadorial appointments in Geneva (1984–87) accredited to the UN and in Washington D.C. (1995–97). During his diplomatic career he engaged pro-actively and innovatively in political, disarmament, economic, trade, human rights and cultural matters in both bilateral and multilateral contexts. He represented Sri Lanka and chaired groups in the Non-aligned Movement and SAARC Conferences, Commonwealth meetings, the Conference on Disarmament and disarmament treaty related meetings, UNCTAD, the Commission on Human Rights and other human rights bodies, ILO, WHO, WIPO, and WMO amongst others. Dhanapala was widely acclaimed for his Presidency of the 1995 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension Conference, a landmark event in disarmament history, because of his crafting of a package of decisions balancing the twin objectives of nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament and the concerns of the nuclear weapon states and the non-nuclear weapon states which was adopted without a vote. He was later invited by the Australian government to serve as a member of the Canberra Commission together with a Group of 17 eminent international personalities publishing an influential report on nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation in 1996.
Schooled and experienced in corporate management, Dhanapala has integrated these skills and experiences into successful governmental, diplomatic mission and international organizational administration. He has an in-depth knowledge of the United Nations, gained from ten years of exposure in working in a senior management capacity in the United Nations. As an efficient and effective senior manager he gained valuable experience in human resource and budgetary management working smoothly with staff representatives and delegations of member states. First, he served as Director (D2) of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva (1987–92) directing policy oriented research in an autonomous think-tank broadening the financial base through fund-raising with a wider group of countries and foundations. He acted to expand the area of research to include non-military threats to security, handbooks to assist delegations to the Conference on Disarmament, providing opportunities for training of researchers from developing countries, networking of research institutes in regions and increasing the volume and impact of UNIDIR publications. Later, Dhanapala was hand picked by Kofi Annan to take on the challenging job of Under Secretary General to re-establish the Department of Disarmament after the UN reforms of 1997 (1998–2003). During his tenure he piloted the UN role in arresting the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, anti-personnel landmines, conventional weapons, and weapons of mass destruction while reinforcing existing norms and norm-building in other areas such as missiles. He also broke new ground both in-house in taking managerial initiatives in gender mainstreaming and in work-life issues, as well as in the disarmament field by innovating the exchange of weapons for a development programme in Albania and other areas, and also in the cross-sectoral linking of disarmament with development, the environment and peace education programmes. Dhanapala has had a solid education in the humanities obtaining a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka and a Master of Arts (International Studies) degree from the American University of Washington D.C. in the USA. He studied Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. He has also had work-experience in academia as Diplomat-in-Residence in 1997 with the Centre for Non-proliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies in the USA researching and writing on a non-discriminatory global approach to disarmament. He has published four books and several articles in international journals, and has lectured in many countries. He was awarded a MacArthur Foundation grant to research and write his book on “Multilateral Diplomacy and the NPT: An Insider’s account” published by UNIDIR, Geneva in 2005. His contributions towards the international community have been widely recognized through the receipt of several awards including: Georgetown University, Washington D.C., the Monterey Institute of International Studies, the Ploughshares Fund and the School of International Service of American University, Washington D.C. for his work in diplomacy and disarmament, and was the Global Security Institute’s first recipient of the Alan Cranston Peace Award in 2002. He was nominated Sri Lankan of the Year 2006 by the Sri Lankan business journal ‘Lanka Monthly Digest’. Dhanapala has also received several honorary degrees including Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka (2000), Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa by the Monterey Institute of International Studies, U.S.A. (2001), Doctor of Science in the Social Sciences by the University of Southampton, U.K. (2003), Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by the Sabaragamuwa University, Sri Lanka (2003), and in 2009 he was awarded a honorary Doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) from the Dubna International University of Nature, Society and Man in Russia. In November 2007 the International Peace Bureau awarded Dhanapala the Sean MacBride Prize. As an effective and eloquent communicator to a wide variety of audiences, Dhanapala has been invited to deliver several keynote lectures that include the Olof Palme Memorial lecture at SIPRI in1999 and the Dorothy Hodgkin Memorial Lecture to Pugwash in 2003. He has also published op-ed articles in international newspapers such as the International Herald Tribune and the UK Financial Times. Jayantha Dhanapala was born on 30 December 1938 and is married with two children. He speaks fluent Sinhala and English, and is proficient in both French and Chinese. |
|
||||||||||||||||
*** ****
Janaka Ratnasiri: “Dr. Dhanapala and DG post at IAEA,” …. in Island 18 November 2014
Every Sri Lankan, I am certain, would feel proud that Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala will receive the 2014 International Achievement Award for Nuclear Disarmament, at the UN premises on the 17th instant as reported in several weeklies last Sunday (16.11.14). This prestigious award has been previously received by two UN Secretary Generals – Kofi Annan in 2006 and Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1995.
Reading through the write up on Dr. Dhanapala which appeared in Sunday Island of 16.11.14, his main contribution towards nuclear disarmament which earned him this award appears to be the role he played as President of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension Conference held in 1995 where he successfully steered the negotiations to get the powerful nuclear-weapon nations – USA, UK, France, Russia and China – and several non-weapon nuclear nations to agree for an extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty towards elimination of nuclear weapons and a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. This achievement alone qualifies him even for the Nobel Peace Prize, more qualified than President Obama who was awarded the prize doing nothing towards world peace.
This news item brings to my mind the correspondence K. Godage had with Sunday Island of 19.10.14 in which he described how the five permanent-member countries of UN Security Council wanted Dr. Dhanapala to head the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) based in Vienna when the post fell vacant some years ago, but our then government did not nominate him, to the utter surprise of these countries.
Another correspondent describing himself as an UN Observer made an attempt to justify the government’s position saying that the Foreign Minister at that time did not nominate a Sri Lankan candidate for the post of DG IAEA as he had to balance the national interest as against the personal interest of one individual (Sunday Island of 02.11.14). He also tried to cast doubts about acceptance of Dr. Dhanapala for the DG post, which is now proved wrong with this award.
As a participant in many UN meetings on climate change and ozone depletion in the nineties, I have seen how governments clamour to get their people into high positions in the UN system. Unfortunately, this is not so in Sri Lanka where our man at the top only kicks the ladder down. This was highlighted by Mr. Godage when he spoke of our envy at the success of our fellow citizens. Dr. Dhanapala not given nomination is just another of these cases. May be it is part of Sri Lankan culture!
I also endorse the view expressed by Mr. Godage that had Sri Lanka not bartered the Security Council seat with South Korea for employment opportunities there, Dr. Dhanapala would have had the opportunity of being even elected for the post of UN Secretary General when he made a bid for the post, just the way Ban Ki-moon got into that position with S. Korea sitting in the Security Council, provided of course the government gave him the full backing.
Dr. Janaka Ratnasiri,,… at Nawala
