Payam Akhavan

Early life

Akhavan was born in Iran to a Bahá’í family. His family later emigrated to Toronto, Canada during his childhood, due to the persecution of Baháʼís before and after the Iranian revolution. He has practiced in international criminal law and global justice.

Human rights lawyer

Akhavan was counsel before the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission that followed the Eritrean–Ethiopian War. 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 in the International Criminal Court investigation in Libya for the case concerning Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah Al-Senussi on whether the ICC or Libyan courts would 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 in the Rohingya genocide case filed in 2019 against Myanmar 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. 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 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.

Since November 2021, Akhavan has chaired the Committee of Legal Experts for the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law. Akhavan aims to define ecocide as a crime under international law.

Akhavan described the 2026 Iran massacres as "the worst mass-murder in the contemporary history of Iran."

References

References

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35. Administrator. "Committee of Legal Experts (COLE) - Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law".
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