Constitutional law scholar Deepika Udagama and former SAARC Secretary General Esala Weerakoon have been appointed directors of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), effective April 30.
They replace M D D Pieris and Ranee Jayamaha, who completed their terms. The Colombo-based RCSS, co-founded in 1992, conducts policy research on conventional and non-conventional sources of conflict and conditions of peace. Its board now comprises Amal Jayawardane, Chulani Kodikara, Dilip Kodikara, Nazir Hussain and Varun Sahni, alongside the two new directors. Ravinatha Aryasinha is Executive Director.
Udagama specialises in international human rights law. She chaired the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka from October 2015 to August 2020 and served on the Law Commission from 2004 to 2009. She founded the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the University of Colombo in 1991 and established the Department of Law at the University of Peradeniya in 2009, where she was Chair Professor of Law until September 2025. She holds LL.B. (Hons.) and LL.M. degrees from Colombo and an LL.M. and Doctor of Juridical Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
Weerakoon was the 14th Secretary General of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation from March 2020 to September 2023 and Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2017. His 35-year diplomatic career includes postings as High Commissioner to India, Ambassador to Norway and Deputy Chief of Mission to the United States, with stints as Senior Additional Secretary to the President in 2018–2019 and 2023–2024. He holds an Honours degree in Economics from the University of Kelaniya and an MSc from the London School of Economics.
Source: EconomyNext.
