Gehan Gunatilleke

Biography

Gehan Gunatilleke is DPhil student at the Faculty of Law, and a researcher at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. His research focuses on the restriction of communication rights under international human rights law. Prior to commencing his DPhil, he obtained an MSt in International Human Rights Law (with distinction) from the University of Oxford on a Commonwealth Scholarship. He also has an LL.M from Harvard Law School, where he was a Fulbright Scholar and a Dean's Scholar in International Human Rights.

Gehan is a former UN advisor to the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry, where he specialised in international treaty compliance. He has served on legislative drafting committees that have drafted key human rights laws in Sri Lanka including the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance Act. He has also served on national delegations to the UN Human Rights Council and UN human rights treaty bodies. His advocacy work in Sri Lanka has focused primarily on combating ethno-religious violence and campaigning against state regulation of mainstream and social media.

Gehan has taught post-graduate courses on human rights, democratisation and development offered by the University of Colombo, University of Sydney and Open University of Sri Lanka. He is currently a tutor in human rights at St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford. He has authored several publications, including 'The Chronic and the Entrenched: Ethno-religious Violence in Sri Lanka' (2018) and 'Contronting the Complexity of Loss: Perspectives on Truth, Memory and Justice in Sri Lanka' (2015).