Reviewed by:

• In Search of a Better World: A Human Rights Odyssey by Payam Akhavan
• William Schabas (bio)

For nearly sixty years, Canadian public life has been enriched by the Massey lectures. An annual event, they are broadcast on the radio network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, one of the sponsors of the series. Now they are also delivered in public lectures across the country and published by another of the sponsors, House of Anansi Press. Over the years, Massey lecturers have included such distinguished scholars, public intellectuals and global personalities as John Kenneth Galbraith, Martin Luther King, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Willy Brandt, and Noam Chomsky. Professor Payam Akhavan was the inspired choice of Massey lecturer for 2017. He delivered the only lecture series to include the words "human rights" in the title.

Professor of international law at McGill University, in Montreal, Akhavan has a distinguished academic publishing record, including a major monograph on genocide with Cambridge University Press. He is also an accomplished advocate who has appeared before the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, and the International Criminal Court. His impressive curriculum vitae registers an impressive amount of field experience in the enforcement and implementation of fundamental human rights. This is the material that fuels his inspired presentation of the subject in a book that he has subtitled "A Human Rights Odyssey." Like Homer's epic, it is not a linear account but rather a series of vignettes, without any evident order. This is human rights storytelling at its best, an eloquent answer to the hateful populism that circulates much too widely. The narratives point with deliberate and realistic accuracy to Akhavan's "better world."

The book eschews legalism, which may surprise some readers who recognize Akhavan as the quintessential international lawyer. There are no references to article numbers of treaties and resolutions or to fine points of judicial determination, although the author is of course eminently capable of providing such chapter and verse. Instead, the story of human rights is projected through the lens of victims of violations and abuse, many of them known to the author personally. The conclusions are often understated, leaving readers to draw them or, as the author suggests, pursue consideration of the issues through further reading and inquiry. The writing is lucid and erudite. [End Page 212] For those who have had the pleasure of hearing Professor Akhavan lecture (several of his talks can be found on YouTube), the sparkling prose recalls his mellifluous baritone voice. The volume concludes with a useful bibliography and explanatory but unnumbered endnotes. The five chapters in this book all stand alone and can be read separately, and in any order, as would be expected with lectures that were delivered in different cities and to different audiences.

The book opens on a profoundly personal note, the flight of the Akhavan family including young Payam from their home in Iran to Canada. They escaped the worst excesses imposed upon members of the Bahá'í community to which they belonged, including enforced disappearances, unfair trials, and arbitrary executions. Yet the sanctuary of asylum brought with it other hardships. Living in chilly Canada, Payam Akhavan suffered the racist taunts and physical abuse of ignorant schoolboys. One of his early lessons in modern human rights was being informed, to his considerable satisfaction, that Canadian schoolteachers were forbidden to strike their pupils.

Akhavan suggests that his interest in the crime of genocide may have been sparked by the famous 1985 report of the Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, authored by British barrister Benjamin Whitaker. It described the systematic killing of Iranian Bahá'í with the term genocide, a word Akhavan says "I was hearing for the first time, but one that I would revisit many times in my future human rights career." He is sensitive to the rhetorical dimensions associated with invocation of the "g-word." Under the sub-heading "The Politics of Virtue" he recounts theatrics in the Canadian Parliament about how to label the attacks on Yazidis during the Syrian conflict. These were...

审核人：

• 寻找更美好的世界：帕亚姆·阿卡文（Payam Akhavan）的人权之旅
• 威廉·沙巴斯（生物）

近60年来，梅西讲座丰富了加拿大的公共生活。每年一次，它们在该系列节目的赞助商之一的加拿大广播公司的广播网络上播出。现在，它们还在全国范围内的公开讲座中发表，并由另一个赞助商阿南西出版社（House of Anansi Press）出版。多年来，Massey的讲师包括杰出的学者，公共知识分子和全球知名人士，例如John Kenneth Galbraith，Martin Luther King，ClaudeLévi-Strauss，Willy Brandt和Noam Chomsky。Payam Akhavan教授是2017年Massey讲师的灵感之选。他发表了唯一的系列讲座，在标题中包含“人权”一词。

阿卡万（Akhavan）是蒙特利尔麦吉尔大学（McGill University）的国际法教授，在学术出版方面颇有成就，其中包括剑桥大学出版社（Cambridge University Press）的主要种族灭绝专着。他还是一位有成就的拥护者，曾在国际法院，欧洲人权法院和国际刑事法院出庭。他令人印象深刻的简历在执行和实施基本人权方面拥有大量的现场经验。这是激发他在一本副标题为“人权之旅”的书中对该主题进行启发性展示的材料。就像荷马史诗一样，它也不是一个线性账户，而是一系列无序的小插曲，没有任何明显的顺序。这是最好的人权讲故事，是对流传甚广的可恶的民粹主义的雄辩回答。这些叙事指向Akhavan的“更好的世界”，刻意而切合实际。

这本书避免了法制主义，这可能会使一些承认阿卡万是典型国际律师的读者感到惊讶。没有提到条约和决议的条款编号，也没有提及司法裁决的要点，尽管作者当然能够提供此类章节。取而代之的是，人权的故事是通过侵犯和虐待受害者的镜头来投射的，其中许多人本人都知道。这些结论常常被低估了，留给读者去画它们，或者如作者所建议的那样，通过进一步的阅读和探究来寻求对这些问题的考虑。作品是清晰而博学的。[结束页212]对于那些乐于听取Akhavan教授的演讲（他的一些演讲可以在YouTube上找到）的人来说，波光粼粼的散文让人回想起他优美的男中音。该卷以有用的参考书目和说明性但无编号的尾注结尾。本书的五章都是独立的，可以按照不同城市和不同受众的演讲内容预期的顺序单独阅读。

这本书以深刻的个人印象作为开篇，这是包括年轻的Payam在内的Akhavan家人从伊朗家到加拿大的飞行。他们逃避了强加给他们所属的巴哈伊社区成员的最严重过分行为，包括强迫失踪，不公正的审判和任意处决。然而，庇护所也带来了其他困难。Payam Akhavan生活在寒冷的加拿大，遭受种族主义的嘲弄和对无知男生的身体虐待。令他相当满意的是，他获悉了他在现代人权方面的早期教训之一，即加拿大的教师被禁止殴打学生。

Akhavan表示，他对种族灭绝罪的兴趣可能是由英国大律师本杰明·惠特克（Benjamin Whitaker）撰写的著名的1985年防止歧视及保护少数小组委员会的报告引起的。它用种族灭绝一词描述了对伊朗巴哈伊人的系统性杀害。阿卡文说：“我是第一次听到这个消息，但我会在未来的人权事业中多次审视这个消息。” 他对与“ g字”的调用相关的修辞方面很敏感。在“美德政治”小标题下，他讲述了加拿大议会中关于如何标记叙利亚冲突期间对雅兹迪斯人袭击事件的戏剧。这些曾经是...