Published: 17 February 2025

Last Updated: 17 February 2025

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Minister of Women and Child Affairs, Saroja Savithri Paulraj presented the progress made since the submission of Sri Lanka’s 9^th periodic report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Geneva on 13^th February 2025.  Outlining notable progress achieved, notable achievements in decision making roles including in Parliament, Minister Paulraj underlined the government’s commitment to upholding the rights of women and girls and in advancing gender equality across all sectors, while seeking to address remaining challenges across economic, social and cultural spheres. Minister Paulraj highlighted the election of 22 female Parliamentarians from diverse social backgrounds including from the working class, marginalized communities and two women parliamentarians from the Malayaga community for the first time in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary history, as well as the appointment of the third female Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, who obtained the highest number of preferential votes from the Colombo district.

Published: 14 February 2025

Last Updated: 07 April 2025

Madam Chair,

Distinguished members of the Committee,

Civil society representatives, particularly those who have travelled from Sri Lanka,

Good morning

Published: 10 February 2025

Last Updated: 10 February 2025

156^th session of Executive Board

Agenda item 13 - Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025-2034

 statement by Sri Lanka

Thank you chair,

Sri Lanka welcomes the report by the Director General on the draft global traditional medicine strategy 2025-2034.

Sri Lanka appreciates the WHO, particularly the Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine units for their role and tireless efforts in preparing the draft Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025-2034 and commends India’s leadership for bringing together the Global Friends of Traditional Medicine for convergence of ideas on this important area.

Sri Lanka is committed to promoting traditional medicine through the national traditional medicine policy Sri Lanka 2024-2034 which was launched in August 2024 and recognizes the policy thrust areas; Providing quality service delivery, Management of resources, Strong collaboration, Increasing the economic value of traditional Medicine, Protect the traditional inheritance of Indigenous and other communities, Large scale cultivation of medicinal plants for commercial use, and Manufacturing of traditional medicine products.

Sri Lanka is dedicated to improve the quality and safety of traditional medicine through its regulatory framework and safety monitoring system which is aligned with the Global strategic directions.

Chair,

Sri Lanka welcomes the WHO’s Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025-2034 and hopes that it will be endorsed by the Executive Board.

Further, Sri Lanka looks forward to engaging with WHO on potential assistance including through the Global Traditional Medicine in promoting the Global Traditional Medicine Strategy and capacity-building efforts.

Thank you

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Published: 10 February 2025

Last Updated: 10 February 2025

156^th Session of Executive Board

Agenda item 14 - Global Strategy for Women’s Children’s and Adolescents’ Health

Statement by Sri Lanka 

Thank you Chair

Sri Lanka is pleased to cosponsor the resolution on regulating the digital marketing of breast milk substitutes and appreciates Brazil and Mexico for leading the process.

Breastfeeding and adequate and safe infant and young child feeding practices promote optimal health and development of a child. Sri Lanka is strongly committed to follow the international Code of Marketing of Breast milk Substitutes which was adopted in 1981.

The revised national nutrition policy of Sri Lanka highlights the need for strong legislation to control unethical marketing of food and beverages, emphasizing on mothers, infant and young children’s nutrition. With the purpose of regulating the marketing of foods and nonalcoholic beverages to children, a nutrition profile has also been developed by Sri Lanka and new labeling and advertising regulations under the Food Act are implemented from January 2025 to safeguard children from unethical marketing.

Mr. Chair,

Promoting infant formula, products for young children, bottles and teats through digital marketing has become an emerging challenge worldwide. Increasing exposure of parents to these products and their misleading representation as a safe option equal to or better than breast milk, may affect infant and young child feeding practices.

In the wake of digital marketing, Sri Lanka stresses the importance of expanding the scope of the code of marketing of breast milk substitutes to meet the present concerns.

Sri Lanka joins with others and requests the Executive Board to endorse this important resolution by consensus, with the view to safeguarding infant and young children nutrition.

Thank you.

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Published: 10 December 2024

Last Updated: 29 May 2025

Mr. Chair,

Sri Lanka appreciates your efforts in presenting an ambitious road map together with a proposal to convene a Special Conference in 2025, with the earnest hope of bringing the two years of discussions at this Working Group towards a tangible outcome.

Today, we have come to a point where we need to deliver on what we have been deliberating over the years or at least strive to see how far we can go and reshape our path towards a solid outcome. In that sense, we welcome the proposal by the Chair and look forward to constructively engaging with all States Parties to decide our way forward based on consensus while recognizing the concerns of all Members.

Mr. Chair

We understand the proposed ‘Science & Technology Review Mechanism’ is an important element of the proposed roadmap as well as Convention and we value the efforts of Friends of Chair for driving the mandate of the Working Group throughout the past year, particularly crafting the recommendation on Science & Technology Review Mechanism in an inclusive approach.

Science & Technology can be considered as one of the vital elements related to the Biological Weapons Convention. As we are aware, advances in biological science and bio-technology could pose risks and threats which could lead to potential breaches of the Convention while the same can be of benefit to fight against such risks by developing vaccines and medicines. It is important to be mindful of this dual-use nature of life sciences which bring both advancements and challenges to the implementation of the Convention when we deliberate on the elements of the Science & Technology Review Mechanism. As we consider the proposed Science & Technology Review Mechanism after five decades of signing the Biological Weapons Convention in 1972, the rapid evolution of bioscience and biotechnology and emerging challenges, as well as associated risks posed by advancement of wide range of sciences and technologies in the world need to be adequately captured in this mechanism.

While firmly believing that the proposed mechanism should be an integral part of strengthening the Convention, Sri Lanka wishes to make the following observations;

1. The States Parties may strive to minimize the complexity of the proposed Science & Technology Mechanism with a view to make it more pragmatic and sustainable.
   
   
2. This Advisory Mechanism should ensure equal access to all States Parties to receive specific advice on scientific and technological developments relevant to the Convention, exchange of relevant information on latest scientific developments regardless of scientific or technical capabilities, and economic status of the States.
   
   
3. The proposed review group, reporting committee and temporary groups under this Advisory Mechanism should operate in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner and with a balanced approach.
   
   
4. While noting that the Science and Technology Reporting Committee of up to 25 members drawing from the Science and Technology Review Group will serve in their individual expert capacities, we underline that a clear selection criterion is vital. The level of expertise and experience should be clear and should proportionately accommodate experts from developing countries. It is important to reflect geographical and gender balance in the Reporting Committee as recommended in the non-paper.
   
   
5. The number of members of the Reporting Committee should be flexible to accommodate a reasonable number of experts depending on the number of nominations received by the states and the necessity of having relevant experts in the Committee while striking the balance between numbers and geographical and gender representation.
   
   
6. Clearly pre-defined selection criteria for standing bodies of Advisory Mechanism will be crucial to avoid any conflict of interest and the experts to the Advisory Mechanism should be free from influence of the nominating government and vital to ensure the independence and transparency of their work.
   
   
7. We propose setting up ethical standards to be followed by the scientists and experts in serving in the standing bodies of this Mechanism
   
   
8. This Mechanism needs to be improved to hear the voices of developing and least developed countries even in the event such countries do not have capacity to nominate experts in the relevant field.
   
   
9. Given the rapid development in science and technology, we perceive the importance of nominating experts from diversified fields of related sciences such as biology, biotechnology, microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, biosecurity, immunology, epidemiology etc. as well as in a multidisciplinary approach including in the field of technologies related to military development, security, artificial intelligence (AI) etc.

Mr. Chair,

In view of the road map and the proposal that you have put forwarded as a basis for our discussions at this Working Group, we wish to emphasize that both the International Cooperation and Assistance (ICA) mechanism and the Science & Technology mechanism should be independent, transparent and sustainable and their parallel progress will be vital to reach the desired outcomes.

We understand that the pragmatic and effective operation of these two mechanisms will be important in the universal implementation of the BWC.

Mr. Chair

Sri Lanka attaches great importance in addressing the needs of developing and least developed countries through these mechanisms and we are committed to extend our fullest cooperation in strengthening the Biological Weapons Conventions in a realistic manner while considering the concerns of all States Parties in a consensual approach.

Thank you

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Published: 09 December 2024

Last Updated: 28 May 2025

Mr. Chair,

As this is the first time that my delegation is taking the floor, I take this opportunity to congratulate you for assuming the role of the Chairperson of this Working Group. We are confident of your leadership to steer the work of the Working Group on strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). Please be assured of the fullest support and cooperation of Sri Lanka for the success of this session and to reach the desired outcome of the Working Group.

We thank the Friends of Chair on International Cooperation and Assistance (ICA) for the comprehensive work carried out to craft the ICA mechanism and leading the informal consultations for sharing views to enrich the proposed structure of the ICA mechanism.

As depicted in the Chair’s Roadmap, in the overall picture, it is pertinent to understand the importance of correlation between all proposed mechanisms under the Convention for its implementation at an optimal level.

Mr. Chair,

It may be noted that Article X of the Convention which calls for the ‘fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the use of bacteriological (biological) agents and toxins for peaceful purposes’ is vital and strengthens the other pillars of the Convention such as Science and Technology Mechanism, Assistance Response and Preparedness as well as Compliance and Verification. 

Mr. Chair,

Sri Lanka welcomes the proposed ICA Programme and the Guiding Principles together with the proposed International Cooperation and Assistance Fund (ICA Fund) for the financing of the ICA Programme and wishes to make the following observations;

1. The ICA Steering Committee which oversees the ICA Programme and the ICA Fund should be open to all State Parties and as proposed in the Terms of Reference, the composition should reflect a broad and proportional geographical distribution and gender balance.
2. Selection criteria to the Steering Committee should be very clear and transparent and the Steering Committee should operate in a transparent manner.
3. We also believe that the Terms of Reference (ToR) should be flexible to adjust to the operational aspects of the Steering Committee such as number of days and frequency of the meetings without leading to any stalemate on procedural issues
4. National ownership of any project or initiative under the ICA Mechanism is critical.
5. Enhancing global, regional and national capacities to respond to biological threats is equally important as the spread of such a threat or biological risk across borders causing devastation to the entire world can go beyond control. Therefore, Sri Lanka attaches great importance to effective integration of developing and least developed countries (LDC) into the proposed ICA Mechanism. Improving this mechanism in a pragmatic way to identify the specific needs for developing countries and to prioritize the applications and requests of developing countries for capacity building, technical, scientific assistance and resources etc. will be vital in implementing the Convention effectively and globally.
6. Enhancing partnerships between developed and developing countries to facilitate knowledge, technological and resource transfer and sharing of best practices will be beneficial in this direction. Fostering regional cooperation and networking will enable developing and least developed countries (LDC) to collaborate effectively to address the issues of biological threats.
7. Gathering continuous feedback from developing countries on their challenges in national implementation of the Convention as well as pre and post evaluation of projects, assistance provided under the ICA mechanism is important to shape future cooperation strategies.
8. Implementing robust monitoring systems and post evaluation mechanisms on the effectiveness of projects initiated by ICA Mechanism in any country and ensuring their sustainability is important to fight against biological threats worldwide at any time under any circumstance, in the future.
9. We should not forget the dual use of biological research and life sciences. Therefore, as underlined in Article X of the Convention, ICA Mechanism should also focus on promoting and assisting the peaceful use of bio-technologies in an ethical and responsible manner.
10. Towards this end, it is important to identify complementarities and synergies of the activities by other relevant international and regional organizations with focus on bio-safety and bio-security for necessary collaboration while being mindful of avoiding duplication of the initiatives under this Convention.

Mr. Chair,

Sri Lanka is committed to working with all States in enhancing its capabilities to respond to biological threats as well as to promote peaceful use of bio-technologies.  We remain committed toward strengthening the BWC and its full implementation at national, regional and global level. We firmly believe that comprehensive and pragmatic International Cooperation and Assistance Mechanism will be one of the key pillars in achieving this objective.

Thank you

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