Mohan Pieris (Sri Lanka) Chair of First Committee

(Based on information provided by the Protocol and Liaison Service)

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) elected Mohan Pieris (Sri Lanka) as its Chair.  Mr  Pieris replaced Magzhan Ilyassov (Kazakhstan), who was elected on 7 June but withdrew his candidature on 6 September.  (See Press Release GA/12422.)

Prior to his appointment as Permanent Representative to the United Nations in 2021, Mr. Pieris had an active legal practice in Sri Lanka and worked as a professor and lecturer at various universities since 2015, including the National Law University of Delhi, Rajiv Gandhi National Law University in Patiala and the National Law University of Advanced Legal Studies of Kochi.

Earlier in his career, he served as Chief Justice of Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court from 2013 to 2015.  He was appointed Chairman of the Seylan Bank PLC in 2011 and also served as a Senior Legal Advisor to the cabinet ministries in Sri Lanka during that time.  In 2008, he was appointed Attorney-General of Sri Lanka, after serving as a Legal Consultant to the Central Bank, a Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Defence and as the President’s Counsel.

Beginning in 1996, Mr. Pieris practised law in the Original and Appellate courts on both criminal and civil matters, as well as matters of public law and fundamental rights in the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.  He also served as Deputy President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka.  Between 1981 and 1996, Mr. Pieris was State Counsel for the Sri Lankan Attorney-General’s Department working in the Ceasefire Monitoring Committee and the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Corruption and Abuse of Power in Public Bodies.  He also worked as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, beginning in 1978.  In 1975, he began work as an attorney-at-law for the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.

He attended the Royal College in Colombo and received his law degree from Sri Lanka Law College.

Mr. Pieris was born on 30 August 1951 and is married.

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* This supersedes Press Release BIO/5370 of 3 February 2021.