The Foreign Ministry announces with deep sorrow the passing away of Mr. Moragodage Christopher Walter Pinto, famously known as Mr. Chris Pinto, on 21 July, 2022, in the Hague, Netherlands. Mr. Pinto was the first Legal Advisor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who established the Legal Division of the Ministry in 1967.

Mr. Pinto was a legal scholar recognized both locally and internationally.  He read law at the University of Sri Lanka, Peradeniya, and the Sri Lanka Law College, and passed out as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and specialized in international law at Magdalene College, Cambridge University.

Some of the key posts he held were: 1967-76 Legal Adviser and Head of the Legal Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1976-80 Sri Lanka Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Austria, 1968-69 Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN Conference on the Law of Treaties, Vienna, 1967-80 Representative of Sri Lanka in the Sixth (Legal) Committee of the UN General Assembly, 1968-82 Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN Sea-bed Committee and to the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and was the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Delegation 1980-81, 1971-75 Chairman of the Conference’s Negotiating Group of the Whole on the international regime for the seabed beyond national jurisdiction, 1973-81 Member of the UN International Law Commission and Chairman of the Commission 1980.

Secretary-General of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, 1982 – 2011.

An Arbitrator, appointed by the Government of Sri Lanka to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, to the List of Arbitrators and the List of Conciliators maintained by the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (World Bank), as well as to the List of Arbitrators maintained pursuant to Annex VII, and the List of Conciliators maintained pursuant to Annex V, of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.Member of the CIETAC (China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission) Panel of Arbitrators.

Served as international arbitrator under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and as president in an arbitration between two Asian countries under Annex VII to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.Member of the Institute de Droit International (since 1989) Member of the International Law Association (since 1994)Member of the Board of Trustees of the International Ocean Institute (Halifax, Canada/Malta), Visiting Professor at the World Maritime University, Malmö, Sweden, directed for several years the general course on the Law of the Sea.

Co-founder of the Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia.Founding Co-Editor of the Asian Yearbook of International Law.Member of the Advisory Councils of the Asian Yearbook of International Law, the Asian Journal of International Law, the Korean Journal of International and Comparative Law, and the Sri Lanka Journal of International Law.Mr. Pinto’s demise is a great loss to Sri Lanka as a nation and also to the international legal field in which Mr. Pinto distinguished himself both as a Member and Chairman of the International law Commission of the United Nations.

May Mr. Pinto’s soul rest in peace!