In Search of a Better World is a timely read which explores the complex world in which we live. Written as a memoir and a social exposition, this book is literary nonfiction at its finest. Payam Akhavan explores how genocide and human rights violations can still exist in our modern world and highlights the terrible atrocities that have taken place around the globe. There is also hope, however, and Akhavan leaves the reader with a strong sense of potential solutions and how we can all contribute to making the world a better place. Truly a compelling and inspiring read.

This is the link to my review on my blog

https://booknormblog.com/2017/09/19/book-review-in-search-of-a-better-world-by-payam-akhavan/

Below is the text of the review
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reviews, opinions and fun by Norm Sigurdson
Posted on September 19, 2017 by Norm Sigurdson
Book Review – In Search of a Better World: A Human Rights Odyssey by Payam Akhavan

Payam Akhavan’s In Search of a Better World: A Human Rights Odyssey is this year’s CBC Massey Lectures entry. Akhavan is reading its five chapters in five Canadian cities now and the lectures will be broadcast on CBC Radio from November 6 to 10.

It is Akhavan’s personal story as an immigrant to Canada who became a respected United Nations war crimes prosecutor coupled with his impassioned examinations of war crimes and human rights abuses in our times.

Akhavan, now a professor of international law at McGill University in Montreal, was born in Tehran but came to Toronto at the age of ten, his family fleeing persecution in Iran as members of the Bahá’í religious minority. Family friends were murdered or executed and his uncle was tortured and killed, his body dumped on the street in front of the hospital where he was a doctor, in anti-Bahá’í purges.

Akhavan’s career with the UN took him to the front lines of genocides and mass killings in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Iraq and other war zones. He went on to prosecute many war crimes cases against the instigators of these atrocities at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

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In the five chapters Akhavan weaves his personal story with the stories of the human tragedies that have taken place in these and other hot spots. He is justifiably proud of his role in bringing murderers to justice, but his anger at having to do so is deeply felt. Punishing evil is cathartic, but stopping it before it happens is the better path is his unarguable message.

He is scathing about the lack of political will to stops genocides from happening and his anger comes through clearly even when he uses a lawyerly tone.

“Familiarity with the anatomy of genocide may well suggest that often the great evils of our time are predictable; and if they are predictable, the case could be made that they are also potentially preventable,” he writes.

“There is nothing random or spontaneous about radical evil; it is a conspiracy of prodigious proportions. Rarely does it just creep up on us without warning. The real question is not whether we can stop genocide; it is whether we have the will to intervene.”

He is not always entirely specific on how that intervention should take place, but he does emphasise the fact that genocides always begin with scapegoating. How might things have been different in Rwanda for example, he asks, if the radio stations that blared Hutu hatred of Tutsis – “exterminate the cockroaches” – been shut down by Western forces?

Quoting the saying “The Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers. It began with words,” Akhavan adds “Cockroaches and lice, snakes and rats— the dehumanization of others is always a precondition for their destruction.”

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I read Akhavan’s book on the weekend when news of the latest human rights catastrophe, the Myanmar government’s persecution of its Rohingya minority, was in the air and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland declared that “it looked a lot like ethnic cleansing.”

This brought home to me Akhavan’s weary observation about Western concern for the Rwanda massacres: “There was no geopolitical imperative, no strategic interest or oil or minerals that could justify intervention. At most, the suffering of others was inconvenient for our collective conscience, but even that would quickly pass.”

“The problem is not that radical evil is inevitable,” Akhavan reminds us. “The problem is that we don’t really care about human suffering until it comes directly to our shores, or at least onto our television or computer screens. The solutions are there, but the political will is missing.”

His book is a passionate and authoritative call for us all to wake up – and to wake our governments up – to injustices before they become atrocities.

In Search of a Better World: A Human Rights Odyssey by Payam Akhavan, House of Anansi, 385pp., $19.95

In Search of A Better World: A Human Rights Odyssey by Payam Akhavan is a study of human rights violations in the last few decades. Akhavan is an international lawyer and a professor at McGill University in Montreal. He is a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. He has since played a leading role as a pioneer of international criminal law and global justice, is regarded as a leading scholar and practitioner of international law and human rights, and an important figure in the Iranian human rights movement.

Akhavan was born in Iran and fled with his immediate family to Canada in 1979. He spent his teen years on in Canada. He mentions the problems he had fitting in and common problems kids face growing up in the West. He then tells of his family and friends who were not so lucky and remained in Iran. His uncle was tortured, killed, and left out on the street. Iran moved from an open, capitalist/consumerist country to a strict religious state. Akhavan’s family was persecuted for their Bahai faith and he realized his problems were quite small. He went on and received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from Harvard with a dissertation titled Reducing Genocide to Law: Definition, Meaning, and the Ultimate Crime.

Akhavan starts with his involvement in the prosecuting war criminals in the Bosnia and Herzegovina conflict and the rebirth of the UN’s enforcement of human rights. Several modern genocides are given with a detailed account of the Rwandan conflict. The history of the Hutu and Tutsi grievances are covered in detail. There was also a peacekeeping mission that received little support and remained toothless. Afghanistan’s Taliban and the rise of ISIS are also covered. These conflicts received much mover coverage and involvement because of its threat to the West. The pledge of “never again” has been ignored by most of the world. Akhavan has worked to enforce human rights violations around the world and in Iran.

Akhavan waits until he establishes the horrors of modern genocide before he asks a simple question about getting rid of lice. Would anyone oppose ridding the world of lice? It seems like a simple question with an easy answer, but that seems to be the problem. The Hutu referred to the Tutsis in Rwanda as cockroaches. It is a typical tactic in many wars to dehumanize the enemy. The Germans became Huns. In Vietnam it was the gooks. Ragheads and Hadjis are our enemies in our wars the Middle East. It is difficult to convince a person to take another’s life if they are viewed as equals. Make them less than human, insects or vermin, and suddenly it is easier to kill.

In Search of A Better World, part history and part biography, show how much mankind has left to grow. For the most part, the West tends to ignore or not think genocide in a far off country is a good use of resources. While the genocide in Rwanda was being executed, the United States ignored it and concentrated on Haitian refugees landing on American shores. Human Rights only becomes an issue when it lands on your shores. A better world will only come about when we all care about stopping the killing rather than taking sides in the conflict. A well written and educational book.

This powerful book is a must-read for anyone invested in human rights work, as it captures how interconnected all oppression is and what radical chances are needed for substantial progress!