The year 2025 brought one significant change for the World Future Council: in May, Neshan Gunasekera was appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer. Born and raised in Sri Lanka, he trained as a lawyer, advised the UN and has been part of the WFC journey since its founding in 2007 as Policy Advisor on Future Justice and thereafter as a respected Member of the Council. In this edition of Pathfinder, we get to know him better, hear his vision for the organisation — and find out what motivates him.
Neshan, before we talk about the continuing journey of the Council, tell us a little about where you come from and what drew you to your profession in the first place.
My island home Sri Lanka, blessed with two monsoons, fertile soil and one of Asia’s richest bioregions, is where my first values were formed. My childhood memories, despite a protracted armed conflict, was guided by my maternal grandparents and parents; we three brothers were given every opportunity to cherish each of those blessings. The butterfly pilgrimage to the butterfly mountain was not just stories but a lived experience I now share with my son.
Both my professions, law and education, were shaped by my parents: my mother, a distinguished lawyer and long-serving member of the public service, guided me on to the path of legal training; my father, who developed several generations of sportspeople across our Island and beyond, instilled in me the values of sportsmanship. Together, they made sure we were given the best opportunities to pursue our own dreams. The third shaping force was Judge C.G. Weeramantry and his wife Rosemary. In 2007, as Director of his Foundation, I had already begun the correspondence with Jakob that would lead to the World Future Council’s founding that May.
You often quote the Māori proverb Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua, meaning “I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past.” How does that idea resonate with you personally, and how does it shape your vision for the WFC?
Copyright: Justin Sobion
This proverb came to me as part of a spiritual blessing from our Honorary Councillor Grandmother Pauline when I began my new role in May 2025 — carrying memories that stretch from the first AGM in 2007 to our gathering at The Hague for the 25th Anniversary of the Earth Charter, shortly after my appointment. That continuity felt deeply meaningful. For me, this proverb expresses how I want to lead the World Future Council: with genuine respect for everything that has been built before us, by remarkable people across disciplines and generations. And with the humility to learn from the full journey, not just its highlights.
The past holds our greatest strengths and our most important lessons. For us, this translates into learning across bioregions, cultures and generations. The concept of Kaitiakitanga, which means becoming Stewards and Trustees of our Earth, captures this beautifully. It is a concept that resonated with Jakob von Uexkull in the 1980s, and it remains as urgent as ever.
Jakob von Uexküll, founder of the World Future Council, describes himself as a “possibilist” — someone who believes in possibilities. What does that mean to you as you take on leadership of the organisation he founded?
Jakob’s achievements, together with the collective wisdom of so many who were present at the founding and have since passed on, will inform our journey. Between 2008 and 2012, I had the privilege of working closely with him and many others, including organising the Training for Trusteeship Programme in Sri Lanka, to which he would send a message of possibilities each year. I carry those memories as lived experiences to share in the dialogues ahead. In the possibilist approach, I see the vital importance of an intergenerational dimension — and I will build on the lessons from our past as we weave together the next phase.
The WFC has a rich legacy — nearly two decades of advocacy, policy work and community building. How do you see your role in relation to that legacy? What do you want to build on, and where do you want to take the organisation next?
I believe the legacy starts long before the Council actually coming into being in 2007, nor in the late 1990s when the consultation in setting up for a Council was mooted by Jakob and others. It is the collective wisdom of so many remarkable people, their families and their friends, who came together believing in this Council. In this first period of transition, I want to revisit those strands: the wisdom of Wangari Maathai, Hans-Peter Dürr, Sulak Sivaraksa, Pauline Tangiora and others who were with us from the earliest days, and to link those threads with the aspirations of those joining our journey today.
The late WFC Councillor Judge Christopher Weeramantry once said that the law can be greatly advanced to suit the needs of the 21st century, as humanity moves toward shared values and common challenges. As an international lawyer leading an organisation that uses policy and law as levers for change, how do you see the role of law in building a future-just world?
Judge Weeramantry, like many of the founding members, was ahead of his time. His jurisprudence — pioneering international environmental, sustainable development and nuclear disarmament law, and drawing on the wisdom of multiple civilisations — is only now beginning to receive the study it deserves, nearly three decades after he left the International Court of Justice.
He would always remind us, his students, not to ever approach law or policies in isolation of the context of local communities, their respective cultures or societies in which it applies. To do so, he would say would be to our own peril. It is my duty to carry that message forward as best I can. The Council honoured his contribution by commissioning the pioneering report Tread Lightly on the Earth, submitted in 2009, and I had the privilege of serving as his assistant throughout that research.
What does the WFC do that you think the world doesn’t yet fully appreciate?
The WFC was established to bring the collective wisdom of one Council, meaning the wider community of life, to bear on decision-making, placing the voices of future generations at its heart. In the WFC’s Founding Document, we promised to “do everything in our power to help sustain life with all its beauty and diversity for future generations.” That call to inspired and courageous action at all levels of governance is better understood today than twenty years ago, but still not fully appreciated — not while the exploitative, extractive development model persists and short-term thinking entrenches structural violence across most political systems. There is also our own internal reflections, I believe the true potential of the Council is yet to be fully achieved. Our Call to Action from 2007 needs revisiting in light of the paradigms now available to us — the spirit of Kaitiakitanga among them.
What gets you out of bed in the morning and keeps you motivated for the challenges ahead?
There is an easy answer and a more complex one. Let me begin with the latter. My role as CEO is the sacred duty I have been called to fulfil. As a young person, I was privileged to witness the beginning of this collective journey nearly twenty years ago, and honoured to have so many of the wonderful leaders who gathered that day walk beside me, treating me as an equal when I knew I was not. Their stories, their deep wisdom, their kindness weave patterns I carry with me, with the right consciousness, on our collective journey toward the third decade of our One Council.
The easy answer: I am truly blessed to have the love and support of Bridgette, my wife, and our wonderful son, Kael — both of whom continue to ask me the right questions.
