Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in Geneva Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka has been appointed facilitator to negotiate an outcome document of the Asian Region, in the run-up to the UN Durban Review Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination and other related issues.

Ambassador Jayatilleka was appointed on the recommendation by the Ambassador/Permanent Representative of China, the Asian Group Coordinator, of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance was held in Durban, South Africa in 2001 and produced the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, which provided an important new framework for combating racism and intolerance with a wide range of action-oriented measures.

The Review Conference of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action is scheduled to be held in Geneva, Switzerland from 20-24 April 2009 to evaluate progress towards the goals set by the 2001 World Conference. For this purpose Regional Groups are requested to contribute by providing inputs to the above Review Conference.

Latin America and African Regions already had their Regional Meetings in Brasilia and Abuja respectively and had prepared their inputs to the Review Conference.