The Forum on Disarmament and Development (FDD), on the 24th January 2019 successfully launched the book on "The CITES & Sri Lanka" at the Sri Lanka Foundation (SLF). The publication project is supported by the EU in Sri Lanka and the event was graced by M.G.C. Sooriyabandara Director General Department of Wildlife, Samantha Gunasekara Director CITES CoP18 Secretariat and Hakeem Abu Backar Senior Lecturer in Law attached to the University of Colombo.

Sri Lanka will host the CITES CoP18 in May this year. The CITES CoP18 will be the biggest international gathering after the 1948 independence of SL. During the book launch we encouraged the Government to have local regulations in place to implement the CITES in SL before the CITES CoP18 for various important reasons & to engage with the international community to crack down the illicit wildlife trade & also accede to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).

The book was published in all three languages and they can be downloaded through here- https://fddsrilanka.blogspot.com/p/download-fdd-publications.html

The Sri Lanka Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, on the 10th January 2019, launched its book on “The Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), Autonomous Weapons and Sri Lanka”. The Forum on Disarmament and Development (FDD) is the secretariat for the campaign.

The event was graced by Former UN Under Secretary General to Disarmament Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala, Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr. Ravinath Ariyasinghe, Secretary Social Scientists' Association Dr. Kumari Jayawardena and several other distinguished invitees.