The Concordia Political Science Students Association (PSSA) is pleased to present, as part of its Speaker Series:

Payam Akhavan, Faculty of Law, McGill University

Building Democracy in Iran: Towards a New Middle-East

When: Wednesday, February 10, 1:15 to 2:45 p.m.
Where: Room H-1220, Hall Building, 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd., West.

Professor Akhavan was formerly Distinguished Visiting Professor at University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Senior Fellow at Yale Law School, and earned his doctorate at Harvard Law School.

He was the first Legal Advisor to the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda at The Hague and played a key role in the development of its foundational jurisprudence.

He is also Co-Founder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, an investigative commission-in-exile that promotes accountability for atrocities committed by the current Iranian leadership.

Akhavan’s work has been featured internationally, including the New York Times and the BBC. In recognition of his contributions to human rights, he was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2005.

For more information on his pro-democracy activities in Iran, see the Maclean’s article, Helping the revolution: How a McGill prof helped teach Iran’s opposition about non-violent protest.

For more about the PSSA, visit their website.

Posted on January 29, 2010