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UNRWA’s former director and international legal icon Sena Wijewardane passes away
View(s):Mr, Dayendra Sena Wijewardane, a prominent figure in the United Nations system and one-time General Counsel, Legal Adviser cum Director at the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) for Palestine refugees in West Asia passed away in Vienna early this week. He was 90. 
Mr. Wijewardane had his early education at Royal College, Colombo and went on to Jesus College, Oxford University and Trinity College, Cambridge University and became a Barrister at Law (Middle Temple). Later, he became an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.
Mr. Wijewardane practiced in the original and appellate courts in Sri Lanka from 1963-1971. He was also a lecturer and Chairman of the Board of Examiners of the Sri Lanka Law College for a number of years before joining the UN system.
From 1971 to 1997 he served in several senior capacities in UNRWA , rising to the position as General Counsel and Legal Adviser, participating for many years in UNRWA’s General Cabinet and in its principal committees.
In addition to his career at UNRWA , he served in several leading legal functions within the UN, which included being a member and later President of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal (UNAT), Legal Adviser to the Director General of UNESCO at its headquarters in Paris. He was the Procedural Adviser to the President of the World Conservation Congress, Honolulu, Hawaii held under the auspices of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
In October 1999 Mr. Wijewardane was the Legal Advisor to the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) under Bernard Kouchner who later became the Foreign Minister of France. He later became Chairman of the International Commission of Inquiry into the riots in Kosovo.
He has several publications to his name including Criminal Jurisdiction over Visiting Forces with Special Reference to International Forces ; The Ombudsman as a Reality in Southeast Asia; and Protecting Palestinian Refugees: the UNRWA Experience; Humanitarian Diplomacy; The Practitioners And Their Craft.
His funeral will take place in Vienna, Austria next week.
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