H.E. Ms. Tamara Kunanayakam presented her credentials to H.E. Mr. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva on the 9th of August 2011, accrediting her as Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland.
Welcoming the new Ambassador to the credential ceremony, the Director General commended the role played by Sri Lanka in the United Nations System, including the country’s contribution to the UN peace keeping force. Mr. Tokayev also said that Sri Lanka has a great deal of respect within the multilateral system. In response, the Ambassador reiterated Sri Lanka’s firm commitment to the UN Charter and to the multilateral system, recalled Sri Lanka’s role, as promoter of the Non-Aligned Movement, in further developing the principles contained therein, and assured of Sri Lanka’s continued role in promoting and defending that system as the appropriate framework to resolve problems affecting humanity, through dialogue and international cooperation.
H.E. Ms. Tamara Kunanayakam earlier served as Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Republic of Cuba and also served as Minister Counsellor at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Brasília. Prior to her assignment at Sri Lankan Missions abroad, the Ambassador served as the Secretary to the Working Group on the Right to Development, the Working Group on structural adjustment programmes and economic, social and cultural rights, and also that on enforced and involuntary disappearances, at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). H.E. Ms. Kunanayakam was also attached to the ILO and UNDP.
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