Saliya Pieris - The new President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka

Colombo (News 1st); Saliya Pieris P.C. was elected as the 26th President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) on Wednesday (24th).  Saliya Pieris PC secured 5162 votes while Kuvera de Zoysa PC only secured 2807 votes. Saliya Pieris PC & Kuvera de Zoysa PC were contesting for the post of BASL President. Saliya Pieris P.C. heads his Law Chambers, practicing in the areas of Criminal law, Public law and Fundamental Rights in the Appellate and Original Courts. He was appointed in February 2018 as the first Chairman of the Office on Missing Persons, a new institution established as part of Sri Lanka's reconciliation mechanism. Between October 2015 to March 2018 he was a Member of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. He was Deputy President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka from 2015 to 2017 and has been an advocate for the strengthening of human rights, a strong and independent Bar in Sri Lanka and consistently stood for the Rule of Law and the Independence of the judiciary. He played a prominent role in the lawyers' campaign against the impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake of Sri Lanka. Saliya Pieris P.C. is a lecturer in law and has contributed many papers and articles on law and politics. Saliya Pieris P.C. is an Eisenhower Fellow and is an alumni of the Dealing With the Past (DwP) Programme, Switzerland and IVLP, USA.