Payam Akhavan () is an Iranian-born Canadian lawyer. He is nominated as a Member of the
Permanent Court of Arbitration
The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered at the Peace Palace, in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides administrative support in international ...
at The Hague by Bangladesh. He is a Senior Fellow at
Massey College
Massey College is the postgraduate University of Toronto#Colleges, college of the University of Toronto located at the University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The college was established, built and ...
at the University of Toronto and is a visiting adjunct at its Faculty of Law.
He was previously Legal Advisor to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague and special advisor to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
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icty.org He has served as legal counsel in cases before the
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...
, the
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute ...
, the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...
, and the
Supreme Courts of Canada and the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
Early life
Akhavan was born in
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
to a
Bahá’í family. His family later emigrated to Toronto, Canada during his childhood, due to the
persecution of Baháʼís
Baháʼís are persecuted in various countries, especially in Iran, where the Baháʼí Faith originated and where one of the largest Baháʼí populations in the world is located. The origins of the persecution stem from a variety of Baháʼ ...
before the Iranian revolution. He has practiced in international criminal law and global justice.
Career
He also served as counsel before the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission. He was counsel before the ICJ in the Case Concerning Application of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (''Georgia v Russia'') concerning allegations of "ethnic cleansing" in South Ossetia during the August 2008 armed conflict between Georgia and Russia. Additionally he was also counsel to Libya before the ICC in the case concerning Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah Al-Senussi whether the ICC or Libyan courts will prosecute allegations of crimes against humanity arising from the
2011 revolution against Muammar Gaddafi.
In 2013 he acted as counsel for Japan in the Whaling in the Antarctic Case brought by Australia before the ICJ, alleging that Japan's scientific research program was commercial whaling in disguise.
In 2008, he was counsel to Sheikh Hasina while she was imprisoned to avoid her participation in national elections. He campaigned for her release. In 2016, the Kurdistan Regional Government asked him to help investigate ISIS crimes against Yazidis. He is a member of the team of counsel for
The Gambia
The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...
in the
Rohingya genocide case
The ''Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar)'', commonly referred to as the Rohingya genocide case, is a case which is currently being heard by the International Court of ...
filed in 2019 against
Myanmar
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...
before the ICJ.
Payam Akhavan co-founded the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre to establish a record of the Islamic Republic's human rights abuses and promote individual accountability for crimes. He served as a steering committee member and prosecutor of the Iran People's Tribunal, a victim-based truth commission and informal court in exile, to expose the mass executions of political prisoners in Iran during the 1980s. This includes Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa for the mass execution of some 5,000 people in the summer of 1988. Akhavan appeared in the documentary ''The Green Wave'' had testified before the European Parliament, United States Commissions, and the Canadian Parliament, advocating non-violent democratic transitions, emphasis on human rights rather than the nuclear issue, targeted sanctions against human rights abusers, and firmly opposing war.
Akhavan has collaborated
Shirin Ebadi on Iran human rights issues, including an opinion piece in the ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
''. He was the academic supervisor of Nargess Tavassolian, Shirin Ebadi's daughter, during her graduate studies at McGill University. In August 2008, the Iranian Government press made the "accusation" that "Nargess Tavassolian converted to Baháʼísm in 2007 under the direction of Payam Akhavan and started her activities in the Association for Baháʼí Studies" amidst death threats against Ebadi for "serving the foreigners and the Baháʼís."
In 2017, Akhavan was selected to deliver the
Massey Lectures
The Massey Lectures is an annual five-part series of lectures given in Canada by distinguished writers, thinkers, and scholars who explore important ideas and issues of contemporary interest. Created in 1961 in honour of Vincent Massey, a forme ...
and wrote the book ''In Search of A Better World: A Human Rights Odyssey''. A documentary by the same name centred around the book was subsequently released on
CBC Gem
CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...
.
Since November 2021, Akhavan has chaired the Committee of Legal Experts for the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law. This work is part of Akhavan's on-going effort to find legal channels to legitimize
Ecocide
Ecocide (from Greek 'home' and Latin 'to kill') is the destruction of the natural environment, environment by humans. Ecocide threatens all human populations that are dependent on natural resources for maintaining Ecosystem, ecosystems and ensu ...
as a crime under international law.
References
External links
Payam Akhavan at Human Rights Day Seminar, Leiden University, The Netherlands, 2013(Video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akhavan, Payam
Lawyers from New Haven, Connecticut
Iranian emigrants to Canada
Living people
International law scholars
Academic staff of McGill University
Fernand Braudel Fellows
Harvard Law School alumni
Osgoode Hall Law School alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
20th-century Canadian lawyers
Iranian Bahá'ís
Canadian Bahá'ís