Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva and Chairman of the Personal Representatives of the Group of Fifteen (G-15), has urged WIPO to take measures to promote South-South Cooperation in the field of Intellectual Property for Development. He said that “WIPO should act as a catalyst to increase triangular cooperation between developing countries and LDC’s, through initiatives to identify best practices in the use of intellectual property for, inter alia, technology transfer, public health, food security, and other global challenges in which intellectual property has an important role to play".
His Holiness Pope Francis received Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa at an audience in the Vatican on Wednesday. Mr. Rajapaksa who visited the Vatican as the Special Envoy of His Excellency the President, conveyed to Pope Francis an invitation from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to visit Sri Lanka in the near future.
During his visit, the Secretary also paid courtesy calls on dignitaries of the Vatican City State. Mr Rajapaksa appreciated efforts by the Holy See to promote world peace, disarmament, interfaith dialogue and dialogue among civilisations. He said that as a nation that has been blessed with a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural social fabric, and more importantly as a country that was coming out of a long period of conflict, Sri Lanka valued the strength that comes from the unity of the diverse communities in Sri Lanka. After almost thirty years of suffering, Sri Lanka had embarked upon a new era of development and reconciliation for all its people and looked upon the international community for encouragement and support.
Dr. Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) based in Geneva, who was in Colombo on a three day visit from 5-7 November 2013, said that WIPO and Sri Lanka are working out a 10-Point Action Plan towards strengthening the Intellectual Property Regime (IPR) in the country. He acknowledged that Sri Lanka could accrue many benefits through greater focus on Intellectual Property (IP) and also noted that in a highly competitive world and a global marketplace, proper IPR safeguards need to be in place. Dr. Francis Gurry made these observations at the media briefing held in Colombo at the end of his visit to Sri Lanka.
Former Supreme Court judge C.V. Vigneswaran received his Chief Ministerial appointment letter from the Northern Province Governor – Major General G.A. Chandrasiri, today (Oct.01).
Vigneswaran, who was nominated as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the Northern Provincial Council polls, obtained a total of 132,255 preferential votes topping the preferential vote list in Jaffna District.
Sri Lanka received strong cross-regional support in the Human Rights Council from countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America on Thursday ( 26 September 2013) which uniformly welcomed and commended the country’s significant progress achieved in the reconciliation process.
The world needs no policing by a few States, particularly when the UN is mandated to ensure international security, through multilateral engagement, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said yesterday.
Addressing the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly, President Rajapaksa said it is disturbing to observe the growing trend in the international arena, of interference by some, in the internal matters of developing countries, in the guise of security, and as guardians of human rights.