Gritakumar E. Chitty

Gritakumar E. Chitty (born 14 June 1939 in Colombo) is a Sri Lankan jurist and career diplomat at the United Nations; and was the founding Registrar of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Since retirement from the United Nations and International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Chitty has served the Government of Sri Lanka as a member of the National Ocean Affairs Commission, serving as its Chairman prior to 2017.

Early life and education

Born to George Edmund Chitty, QC, esteemed Sri Lankan criminal attorney and Leila Ratnam, daughter of Dr E.V. Ratnam, founder of Ratnam's Private Hospital, and niece of Dr Kumaran Ratnam, former Mayor of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is a Colombo Chetty of Indian, French, and Sri Lankan ancestry.

Chitty was educated at Royal College, Colombo and went to study law at the Law Faculty of the University of Ceylon, which he completed in 1965. He presented in 1967 at the Sri Lanka Law College from the bar exam the following year and received its approval becoming an advocate.

Career

Having joined the unofficial bar and starting his legal practice in 1968, he entered the service of the United Nations Office of Law of the Sea and Ocean Affairs in 1975, under the Office of Legal Affairs, serving until 1996, and was responsible for dispute resolution in maritime law. In addition, he was planning the 1993/1994 inaugural ceremony of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia charged. Even with the establishment of the International Tribunal, he was entrusted mainly and served in the transitional phase between August and October 1996 as Executive Director.

Other interests

Gritakumar E. Chitty is an amateur photographer. He was a Committee Member of the Photographic Society of Ceylon and has exhibited both nationally and internationally in Salon photography. Chitty represented Sri Lanka at the Asian Games and was a private entry at the World Shooting Championships in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1966, where he placed 110th with a score of 578 in the 60 shots prone.[1]

Family life

Chitty married Shanta P. David in 1968, and has a daughter Shonine Wijayanayake, nee Chitty who married to Shehan Wijayanayake of Los Angeles, Paralegal at Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., former Paralegal at Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Inc. and son Gitendra E. Chitty, who married to Sadhana L. Vikrantha, Cofounder and Principal of K2G Global Partners [DBA K2G Advisory] and YH2 Healthcare, cofounder of Bulldog Innovation Group. He currently resides in America and Sri Lanka.

Bibliography

Gritakumar E. Chitty. In: International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Yearbook 2001. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Den Haag 2003, ISBN 90-411-2067-X, S. 97/98

See also

References
  1. "Sri Lankan in top UN post retires". Government of Sri Lanka. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
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