Tamara Kunanayakam, the new Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva, recently presented her credentials to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Prior to her appointment to Geneva, Ms Kunanayakam served as a consultant for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on a soon to be published research project entitled, “Historical Analysis of the Content of the Right to Development”. From 1994 to 2005 she worked as first officer for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights where she acted as head of unit on disappearances in the Special Procedures Branch. From 1993 to 1994 Ms Kunanayakam was the head of the department for development of policy at Bread for All in Bern, Switzerland and from 1991 to 1993 she was a research officer for the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Ms Kunanayakam has held a number of other research and consultant positions, including at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Heidelberg, Germany where she has been a research fellow since 1991. From 1989 to 1990 she was a human rights officer for the United Nations Centre for Human Rights and she worked as a consultant and policy adviser for the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva from 1983 to 1984 and again from 1986 to 1988. From 1985 to 1986 Ms Kunanayakam was a researcher at Antenna International, also in Geneva, and in 1985 she worked as a consultant for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Sub-Saharan Africa. From 1984 to 1985 she was a researcher for the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway and she also worked at the United Nations Development Program in Geneva from 1982 to 1983.

Ms Kunanayakam received her Bachelor’s degree in economics and international relations from the University of Heidelberg and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. She speaks fluent Tamil, French, German and Spanish and is engaged in a number of civic activities including as the founder of the Foundation on Multilateralism in Geneva and a founding member of the Observatory on Globalization in Paris, the South Group in Geneva and the Asia-Pacific Task Force, also in Geneva.