Deshabandu Senior Professor (Dr.) MADSJS Niriella is a Senior Professor in Law attached to the Department of Public and International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She commenced her academic career in 1993 and has served the University system of Sri Lanka for more than three decades in teaching, research, postgraduate supervision, academic administration, curriculum development, policy engagement, and international academic collaboration. She is an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and a distinguished scholar in Criminal Law, Comparative Criminal Law, Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Gender Justice, Child Rights and Juvenile Justice, Restorative Justice, Environmental Justice, International Criminal Law, Emerging Technologies in Law, the Law of Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Criminology, Penology, Victimology, Reconciliation, and Alternative Dispute Resolution.
Professor Niriella holds a PhD in Law from the School of Law, KIIT Law School, India; an MPhil in Law from the University of Colombo; and an LL.B. (Hons) from the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo. She is also professionally qualified as a Company Secretary, Notary Public, and Commissioner for Oaths in Sri Lanka.
At the international level, Professor Niriella has held several prestigious leadership and governance positions in global academic and professional bodies. She presently serves as Board Memebr of International Society for Criminology (202-2023), Advisory Board Member of the Asian Criminological Society (2025–Present), Vice-President of the South Asian Society of Criminology and Victimology (2019–Present), Member of the Scientific Council of Sensus Historiae, Poland (2025–Present), Member of the Executive Committee of the World Center for Women’s Studies (2015–Present), and Member of the Research Committee of Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University, India (2020–Present). She previously served as Vice-President of the Asian Criminological Society (2021–2024), Chairperson of the Graduate Student Best Paper Award Committee of the Asian Criminological Society (2021–2026), General Assembly Presidium Member of the Asian Criminological Society (2019–2021), and Board Member of the International Society of Criminology (2019–2024). Notably, she was the First Asian female and first Sri Lankan academic to serve on these Boards.
Within the national sphere, Professor Niriella has contributed extensively to legal, governance, reconciliation, regulatory, and criminal justice institutions in Sri Lanka. She served as Board Member of the National Unity and Reconciliation Board, Sri Lanka (2021–2025), Board Member of the National Authority for the Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses (First ever in the history – 2016–2017), and Executive Board Member of Asia Crime Prevention (2024–Present). She also served as a Board Member of the Colombo Stock Exchange, Sri Lanka (2012–2019), becoming the First Female Director appointed to the Board of the Colombo Stock Exchange in Sri Lanka. During her tenure, she chaired several committees, including the Disciplinary and Arbitration Committee, Regulatory Affairs Committee, and Dispute Resolution Committee of the Colombo Stock Exchange.
At the University Grants Commission and inter-university level, she has held several influential positions including Member (UGC Nominee) of the UGC Standing Committee on National Unity and Reconciliation (2022– 2025), Member of the Programme and Institutional External Review Committee of the UGC Sri Lanka (2021–Present), and Member of the Board of Management of the Postgraduate Institute of English, Open University of Sri Lanka (2020–2026 January). She has also contributed extensively to quality assurance, curriculum review, institutional governance, ethics review, and external academic evaluations across the Sri Lankan university system. Notably, she led the development of the academic framework and curricula for the Faculty of Criminal Justice at General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, including its two academic departments.
At the University of Colombo, Professor Niriella has held numerous senior academic and administrative positions including Head of the Department of Public and International Law (2012–2015), Deputy Director of Examinations and Registration of the Virtual Campus (2014–2018), Coordinator of the LL.B. External Degree Programme (2012–2017), Course Director of Criminal Justice and Criminology-related postgraduate programmes (2008- Present), Academic Warden, Student Counsellor, Convener of the Students’ Support Committee, Senate Member (2017–Present), Member of the High Degrees Committee, Legislative Committee, Ethics Review Committees (including the Faculty of . Indigenous Medicine), Faculty Board, and several university-level academic and administrative committees. She also served as the Founding Dean of the Faculty of Criminal Justice at General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Sri Lanka (2021–2024), becoming the pioneering academic in establishing Criminal Justice as a separate academic discipline within the Sri Lankan university system.
Professor Niriella has an extensive publication record in the fields of Criminal Law, Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Gender Justice, Victimology, Restorative Justice, Environmental Justice, and Artificial Intelligence in Criminal Justice. She has authored four books, over twenty book chapters, and more than forty peer-reviewed journal articles published in both international and national journals. Her publications have appeared through internationally reputed publishers, including Cambridge University Press, Routledge Taylor & Francis, Springer Nature, Emerald Publishing, LexisNexis, HeinOnline, David Publication, and other leading academic publishers and indexed journals. Her scholarly work has significantly contributed to contemporary debates on criminal justice reform, victim protection, restorative justice, sentencing, ADR, gender-based violence, juvenile delinquency, international criminal law jurisprudence, environmental justice, cybercrime, and emerging technologies in law.
She has presented more than eighty research papers, keynote speeches, plenary speeches, invited lectures, and guest speeches at international and national conferences held in Sri Lanka and overseas including in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America etc. She has delivered keynote addresses, chief guest speeches, inaugural speeches, plenary speeches, and guest lectures on criminal justice, cybercrime, gender justice, human rights, restorative justice, victimology, artificial intelligence, environmental justice, and legal reforms. She has also chaired numerous international conference sessions, plenary panels, technical sessions, and academic symposiums.
Her outstanding academic, professional, and national contributions have been recognized through several prestigious national and international awards. In 2019, she was conferred the national honour “Deshabandu”, the third-highest national honour in Sri Lanka, by the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka in recognition of distinguished and meritorious national service to the country. She has also received the APJ Abdul Kalam Jurist Excellence Award (2025), International Research Excellence Award (2023), Global W.O.W. Achievers Award (2021), Aryabhata International Award (2015), Professional and Career Women Award in the Legal Category (2012), and the Best Presentation Award at the International Conference on Criminology, Law and Society held in London (2017).
Professor Niriella is widely recognized as one of Sri Lanka’s leading legal academics in Criminal Justice and Criminology and has played a pioneering role in advancing Criminal Justice education, victimology studies, restorative justice scholarship, gender justice discourse, and interdisciplinary legal research in Sri Lanka and internationally