Envoy addresses Sorbonne University post-grad students
Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka met with Sorbonne University students to
discuss post-war Sri Lanka on November 29.
|
Ambassador
Dayan Jayatilleka |
The conference was organized by the International Law Students
Association (EDI, Etudiants de Droit International) of Paris I Panth‚on-Sorbonne,
which comprises students from both the Master of International Law and
the Master of International Economic Law.
The EDI association was created in 2006 to enhance debates between
international law students and to exchange solidarity between French and
foreign students.
After a short presentation about his career as an academic and a
diplomat, Jayatilleka spoke on the post-war situation in Sri Lanka.
He answered questions from the students on multilateral diplomacy,
international relations, the movements for change in the Arab world, and
on Sri Lanka, including the Darusman report, the resettlement of IDPs,
the Diaspora and accountability issues pertaining to the last stages of
the war.
“Every society makes its own decision as to when and how it deals
with trauma. And in many societies, the decision is that if you move too
fast, you polarize the society further [...] every society retains, as
part of its sovereign rights, the decision as to what is the right time
for these issues to be looked at,” he said.
Giving a distinctive Asian perspective embedded within an overall
view from the Global south, he also addressed the students on several
international issues such as the overlap and distinctions between
international law and international politics, questions of universality,
popular sovereignty, citizens rights, national sovereignty and just war.
In answer to a question on the Palestinian vote that took place
recently at UNESCO, (Paris), he reminded the students of the quote from
Jawaharlal Nehru displayed at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris which
says “UNESCO is the conscience of the world community.” Jayatilleka
said: “If UNESCO is to be the conscience of the world community, then it
could not make decisions based on crude financial threats.[...] Now both
sides of the deadlocked conflict see what international public opinion
is”. |
