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Milinda on high level UNDP commission
UNITED NATIONS-- Milinda Moragoda, former Minister of Economic Reform, Science and Technology, has been appointed a member of a High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.

The Commission, which is operating under the umbrella of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in New York, consists of several political heavyweights, including former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, former Norwegian Minister of International Development Hilde Johnson, former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson.

Described as a new, independent global initiative, the High Level Commission sets out to explore how nations can reduce poverty through reforms that expand access to legal protection and opportunities for all. The rationale behind the Commission is to help reduce global poverty through formalisation of property rights and the rule of law.

The duration of the Commission will be two and a half years. A final report of the Commission is expected by December 2007. Meanwhile, a reader referring to our last week's story that Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, a former UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women being one of the front-runner's for the job of UN Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflicts, which has the rank of UN Under-Secretary-General, has informed us that apart from the three Sri Lankans to hold such rank, viz., Dr. Gamani Corea (head of UNCTAD), Jayantha Dhanapala (head of the UN Disarmament Department) and Andrew Joseph (Associate Administrator at UNDP), there were some other Sri Lankans who were accorded the 'status' and rank of an Under-Secretary-General of the UN.

These Sri Lankans were, Shirley Amarasinghe (Chairman, Law of the Sea Conference), Dr. C.F. Amarasinghe (Judge of the UN Administraive Tribunal - UNAT), Judge Christie Weeramantry (Judge of the International Court of Justice in The Hague), Asoka de Silva, Asoka Gunasekera and Sena Wijewardene (Chairman, Commission of Inquiry into the role of UN and NATO forces in Kosovo and Co-Vice President of the UN Administrative Tribunal).
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