Atlanta (US): Indo-Canadian specialist on cross cultural family mediation, Dr Mohamed Keshavjee was honoured with the prestigious Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award for Peace, at a ceremony in the US for promoting peace and human rights education.
He was conferred the award on April 5 at the 2016 edition of the Annual Peace Fair and Interfaith Assembly hosted by the Martin Luther King Jr International Chapel, by Dean Lawrence Carter, Dean of Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College who spoke fondly of him and his works. The dean said, “Dr. Keshavjee's work in mediation has been both long and recognized. He has trained family mediators, youth leaders, imams and pastors on family mediation and conflict resolution during his over 30 year career working with the institutions of the Aga Khan. Dr Keshavjee was a member on the Steering Committee of the World Mediation Forum, a coordinator of an international training program that has created over 1,000 mediators in some 25 countries of the world, and he is now an advisor to the International Social Service, which is affiliated to over 120 countries of the world.”
Keshavjee also made a keynote address highlighting the works of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Entitled Gandhi, King and Mandela- Precursors to Transformative Mediation in the Twentieth Century, the South African born Ismaili Muslim, in his keynote, said, “To receive an award named after some of the greatest human beings who shaped the moral contours of the 20th century, is both humbling and daunting. I consider it a singular privilege for me, it represents an important spiritual milestone in my own long journey to reassert my human dignity – a journey that Mahatma Gandhi, the Reverend Martin Luther King jr, president Nelson Mandela and Dr Diasaku Ikeda themselves undertook. These journeys were not taken alone. They were pathways traversed by millions - unsung heroes, men and women, whose voices were never heard, whose travails were never requited and who’s existence on this earthly planet, was often not even acknowledged.”
Keshavjee is an English trained Barrister, a Canadian trained lawyer and a scholar of ADR and Islam. He pursued an LLM and PhD at London University in the fields of Islamic Law, Arab Comparative Commercial law, alternative Dispute Resolution and the International Protection of Human Rights. He has also trained family mediators in some 20 countries of the world and has lectured on ADR in Muslim contexts at the London School of Economics and the Muslim College in London. The doctor has also authored books called, 'Islam, Sharia and Alternative Dispute Resolution', and 'Into that Heaven of Freedom: The impact of apartheid on an Indian family’s diasporic history'.
