Payam Akhavan named Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration

In June 2016, Professor Payam Akhavan was appointed as a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague.  Established in 1899, the PCA is an intergovernmental organization that provides dispute resolution services to the international community, and its appointed members are potential arbitrators named by member states.

Interestingly, Akhavan was appointed by Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, in appreciation for his arbitration work. In 2008, Akhavan was part of a successful campaign to release Sheikh Hasina when she was a political prisoner, who then went on to become PM of Bangladesh in a democratic election.

Hasina asked Akhavan to help solve a sensitive boundary issue in the Bay of Bengal with neighbouring Myanmar and India. Akhavan helped arbitrate this dispute at The Hague and to resolve a long-standing source of tension between these countries. In light of these contributions to Bangladesh, Prime Minister Hasina took the unusual step of appointing a foreign national as Bangladesh’s member to the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

Professor Akhavan continues his human rights work on the international stage. This summer, he was in Iraq at the invitation of the Kurdistan Regional Government to assist with accountability for the atrocities committed by Daesh against the Yazidi people.

In 2017, he will deliver the Massey Lectures, widely regarded as one of the most important public lectures in Canada.