Payam Akhavan has seen humanity’s worst. The international human rights lawyer has been a United Nations prosecutor in Bosnia, Croatia, Cambodia, Guatemala, Timor Leste, and Rwanda.
Akhavan teaches law at McGill University in Montreal and is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. He was appointed last year to the Panel of Arbitrators of the World Bank's International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington. Yet, despite the state of the world, Akhavan refuses to sink into apathy or cynicism.
"It's easy to be cynical. It's effortless to be cynical," he says. "It's much more difficult to understand that we have this incredible power to do good. Instead of wallowing in despair, we just need to look around us to see what it is that we can do to contribute our share."
Akhavan spoke at the Rotary Club of Milwaukee in October 2019 for its 15th annual U.N. Day Program. He stopped by the studio then to talk with us as well:
