Payam Akhavan

Akhavan arrived in Canada in 1975 at the age of nine, when his Bahá’í family emigrated from Iran shortly before the fall of the Shah; after the 1979 Iranian revolution, he watched from Toronto as relatives and friends were targeted and killed in the ensuing persecution of Baháʼís in Iran, an experience he has described as profoundly shaping his life and career.^[12][13][14] He has practiced in international criminal law and global justice.^[15]

According to his 2021 Global Affairs Canada backgrounder, Akhavan completed his Bachelor of Laws (LLB) at Osgoode Hall Law School in 1989. He then pursued graduate studies at Harvard Law School, earning a Master of Laws (LLM) in 1990 and a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) in 2001.^[16]

He joined the Faculty of Law at McGill University in 2005, where he taught public international law, international criminal law, human rights, international dispute settlement, and cultural pluralism, and was promoted to full professor effective 2019. During his tenure at McGill, he combined academic work with practice before international tribunals, including the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.^[17]

Akhavan has held a number of visiting and research appointments, including positions at Yale Law School, Leiden University, the European University Institute in Florence, Oxford University, Université Paris Nanterre, Sciences Po École de Droit, and the University of Fiji. He has also served as a Distinguished Visitor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.^[18]

He is currently Professor of International Law, Senior Fellow, and the inaugural holder of the Chair in Human Rights at Massey College, University of Toronto. Akhavan has published extensively on international criminal law, human rights, and international dispute settlement and serves on the Editorial Review Board of the journal Human Rights Quarterly.^[19]

Akhavan served as Legal Advisor to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Prosecutor and special advisor to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.^[17]

In the 2000s, Akhavan was counsel before the Permanent Court of Arbitration Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission that followed the Eritrean–Ethiopian War (1998–2000).^[20] He was counsel before the International Court of Justice (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.^[21] Additionally he was also counsel to Libya in the International Criminal Court investigation in Libya for the case concerning Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, and Abdullah Al-Senussi on whether the International Criminal Court (ICC) or Libyan courts would prosecute allegations of crimes against humanity arising from the 2011 revolution against Muammar Gaddafi.^[22][23]

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.^[8][24] In 2008, he was counsel to Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh's prime minister from 1996 to 2001, while she was imprisoned and campaigned for her release.^[25] In 2016, the Kurdistan Regional Government asked him to help investigate Islamic State crimes against Yazidis.^[26] He is a member of the team of counsel for The Gambia in the Rohingya genocide case filed in 2019 against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice.^[27]

Akhavan co-founded the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center to establish a record of the Islamic Republic's human rights abuses and promote individual accountability for crimes.^[28] He served as a steering committee member and prosecutor of the Iran Tribunal, a victim-based truth commission and informal court in exile, to expose the mass executions of political prisoners in Iran during the 1980s. In a 2012 New York Times article, Akhavan is cited as saying that the tribunal's work reflects a broader, still‑alive democratic movement in Iran that seeks justice, accountability, and a political order grounded in human rights. He also stresses reconciliation, noting that some perpetrators were themselves traumatized and coerced into brutality. In his view, years of state terror dehumanized Iranians, so their struggle is not only for democracy but also to regain their humanity.^[29] The Economist reported that after three days of hearings at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the Iran Tribunal issued an interim judgment on 27 October 2012 finding that the Islamic Republic of Iran had committed crimes against humanity and serious human rights violations against its citizens during the 1980s, while noting that the tribunal itself has no formal legal authority.^[30] This includes Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa for the mass execution of some 5,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988.^{[31][32][33][34]} Akhavan appeared in the documentary The Green Wave had testified before the European parliament, United States commissions, and the Canadian parliament and senate, advocating non-violent democratic transitions, emphasis on human rights rather than the nuclear issue, targeted sanctions against human rights abusers, and firmly opposing war.^[22][33]

Akhavan has written articles on articles related to Iran human rights issues in collaboration with 2003 Nobel Laureat Shirin Ebadi—awarded for her efforts for democracy and human rights, especially for the rights of women and children.^[35] This includes opinion pieces in the Globe and Mail^[36][37] and the Washington Post.^[37] 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 Baháʼí".^[38]

Since November 2021, Akhavan has chaired the Committee of Legal Experts^[39] for the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law.^[40] Akhavan aims to define ecocide as a crime under international law.^[41][42]

Following the December 2025 United Nation's Human Rights Council special session on the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran, held in Geneva, Akhavan— a civil society representative at the meeting—described the 2026 Iran massacres as "the worst mass-murder in the contemporary history of Iran".^[43]

Akhavan has published widely on themes such as international criminal law, human rights, transitional justice and cultural genocide,^[44] with his work appearing in leading law journals and edited volumes. His publications have examined issues including the prosecution of genocide, the role of international courts in responding to mass atrocities, and the relationship between legal accountability, collective memory and reconciliation.^[45][46] In 2012 Cambridge University Press published his nonfiction entitled Reducing Genocide to Law: Definition, Meaning, and the Ultimate Crime.^[45] Building on a concept first articulated by Raphael Lemkin, who used the term “cultural genocide” in his 1944 work Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, Akhavan has examined how the destruction of cultural and religious life can fit within contemporary understandings of genocide and international criminal law.^[46]

In 2017, Akhavan was selected to deliver the Massey Lectures and wrote the book In Search of A Better World: A Human Rights Odyssey.^[47] A documentary by the same name centred around the book was subsequently released on CBC Gem.^[48]