Ahmad Javid Yusuf is an Attorney at Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka whose legal practice extends to various fields of law including Civil, Criminal and Commercial Law as well as Constitutional, Administrative and Human Rights Law both in Sri Lanka and abroad. He has also worked as a State Counsel (Law Officer of the State) attached to the Attorney General’s Department. He has served as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia as well as Senior Advisor to the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister the late Lakshman Kadirgamar. He was also a Member of the Constitutional Council of Sri Lanka.

He has worked extensively in the field of Human Rights and Conflict Resolution and served as a Member of the National Human Rights Commission and a Member of the Presidential Commission that inquired into high profile Human Rights violations.

A Civil Society activist with wide experience having served on the Boards of Management of several Civil Society Organisations and Educational Institutions, Mr. Yusuf has been very active in the field of media as well. Having functioned as the first Head of the Peace Secretariat for Muslims, he has also served as Principal of the Premier Muslim Boys School in Sri Lanka, Zahira College Colombo.

More recently he has served as a Member of the Board of Management of the Government mandated Office for National Unity and Reconciliation headed by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga as well as a Member of the Professional Advisory Body on National Security appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena after the April 21 Easter Sunday attacks.

Currently he serves as a Member of the Executive Committee of the Congress of Religions (an interfaith body of senior religious leaders) and a Member of the Dispute Resolution Council of the Sri Lanka Press Institute.