Meet Mohamed M Keshavjee LLB , LLM ( Hons) PhD ( SOAS )

Mohamed M Keshavjee LLB , LLM ( Hons) PhD ( SOAS ) and Barrister - at- Law from Gray's Inn London is an internationally respected cross cultural specialist on mediation . He has attended courses in mediation at the Harvard Program on Mediation under Frank Sander , Berghof Foundation in Berlin and the Child Focus in Brussels.

From 2000 -2014 he conceptualised and coordinated under the guidance of His Highness the Aga Khan a mediation training programme for the Ismaili Muslim Conciliation and Arbitration Boards in some 25 countries of the world setting up what is today recognised as one of the largest not for profit mediation systems in the world.

For his work in peace and human rights education Dr Keshavjee was conferred the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Peace Award for 2016 by the Martin Luther King Jnr International Chapel at Morehouse College Atlanta .

He is author of the book" Islam, Sharia And Alternative Dispute Resolution " based on his PHD dissertation on the Muslim Law Sharia Council in the U.K. .He is also co author of the book " Understanding Sharia - Islamic Law in a globalised World " which received critical acclaim in Britain's Financial Times, The Times Literary Supplement, The Arab Law Quarterly, the Muslim News and a number of influential media.

From 2000- 2020 he keynoted leading conferences on mediation in a number of countries including Ireland, France , Lithuania , Switzerland and Argentina.

A former member of the Steering Committee of the World Mediation Forum Dr Keshavjee was invited by The Hague Conference on Private International Law at their Malta 4 Conference as an expert to advise on mediation as a point of first reference in cases of international interspousal child abduction case where one of the parties abducts a child to a country not party to the 1980 Hague Convention.

He is an advisor on mediation to the Secretary General of the International Social Service of Geneva where he was on the Advisory Panel which drafted The Global Charter on Mediation.

Dr Keshavjee is based in the U.K. where he ls a Senior Research Scholar at the Institute of Ismaili Studies. He is presently working on his next coauthored book "Rethinking Sharia in the 21 st century - Critical Debates in Political Contexts "