Speaking

Lectures, panels and conference presentations, 2014–2026. Where a recording or an organiser's record survives, it is linked; where the delivered paper, the lecture outline, the slides or press coverage survive, the entry carries an account of the argument. The rest are listed as they stand.

Engagements
22
With a public record
4
Summarised from source
10
  • Speaker 29 October 2026

    Accountability for International Crimes: The Role of National Courts

    Inaugural Bangladesh–The Hague Forum on International Justice, Embassy of Bangladesh to the Netherlands, co-organised with Africa Legal Aid, The Hague

  • Keynote speaker 24 December 2024

    The International Criminal Court: Building a More Just World

    Department of Law, North South University, Dhaka

    A seminar for students on what the International Criminal Court is and how it works in practice, covering the Court’s structure, its procedural mechanisms and the enforcement of its rulings.

  • Guest lecturer 23 December 2024

    The work of the International Criminal Court

    School of Law, BRAC University, Dhaka

  • Panel speaker 19 July 2024

    Inside the Courtroom: Advancing International Justice through Diverse Roles of Parties

    ICC Sixth Asia-Pacific Forum, International Criminal Court, The Hague

  • Speaker 28 February 2024

    Bangladesh and the Right to Self-determination: The Decades Following 1971

    NSU Law Conference: Law in the Contemporary World, North South University, Dhaka

    Article 25(c) of the Constitution commits the state to ‘support oppressed peoples throughout the world waging a just struggle against imperialism, colonialism or racialism’. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman justified it before the General Assembly in 1974 on the ground that the struggle of Bangladesh symbolised the universal struggle for peace and justice, so it was natural that the country should stand by the oppressed.

    The paper asks what that commitment has amounted to in the five decades since.

  • Speaker 26 January 2024

    The International Criminal Court: What it is, what it does, and who works there?

    NSU Law Webinar Series, Department of Law, North South University

  • Guest speaker 20 April 2023

    Careers Beyond Borders

    United Nations Student Association Maastricht, United Nations University (UNU-MERIT), Maastricht

  • Lecturer 29 October 2021

    Development of International Criminal Justice Institutions: From Nuremberg, Tokyo Tribunal to the ICC

    4th Online Certificate Course on Genocide and Justice, Center for the Study of Genocide and Justice, Liberation War Museum, Dhaka

    The lecture, given for the Liberation War Museum in October 2021, traces international criminal justice from articles 227 to 230 of the Treaty of Versailles to the International Criminal Court.

    It records that ‘The Leipzig Trials were widely considered to be a failure and a travesty to justice.’ Having covered Nuremberg, Tokyo and the ad hoc tribunals, it states that ‘The Rome Statute provides for a robust victims participation regime, unlike any previous international tribunal.’

    The lecture concludes: ‘The hope is that through fair and transparent proceedings victims will feel that justice has been done for them, that society will see examples of perpetrators being held accountable which can help prevent future crimes and create a more just world.’

  • Panellist 3 June 2021

    Dialogue on Official Secrets Act and Its Implications

    Law & Justice Network, Youth Policy Forum, Bangladesh

  • Presenter 19 March 2021

    Legal Implications of the Rohingya Crisis

    YPF-Harvard Dialogue: International Inaction over the Rohingya Crisis, Youth Policy Forum, Bangladesh

    The presentation, given at the YPF-Harvard Dialogue on 19 March 2021, surveys The Gambia’s case against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court’s investigation, the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, and universal jurisdiction proceedings in Argentina.

    It defines justice for the Rohingya as accountability for the atrocities and ‘the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of the Rohingya people to their homes and lands in Rakhine, Myanmar.’ It argues that the Argentinian court, unlike the ICC, could investigate crimes which may have been committed wholly on the territory of Myanmar.

    The presentation concludes: ‘Even without a verdict, the proceedings do have some practical as well as political consequences.’

  • Guest lecturer 14 January 2021

    Working at the International Criminal Court

    Department of Law, North South University

  • Keynote speaker 22 November 2020

    Representing Victims Before the International Criminal Court: The Office of Public Counsel for Victims

    Notre Dame University Law Club, Notre Dame University, Dhaka

  • Panellist 21 January 2019

    Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2019

    Edward M. Kennedy Center for Public Service and the Arts, Dhaka

    The Edward M. Kennedy Center for Public Service and the Arts marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day on 21 January 2019 with a panel discussion on King’s life and work.

    According to the EMK Center’s event record, the panel addressed ‘the influence of Gandhian philosophies on him’, the intersection of the American civil rights movement with post-colonial South-East Asian struggles for equality, and ‘his relevance and importance in the 21st Century’.

    The panellists were Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh; Md. Abdul Awal; and Farhaan Uddin Ahmed. Asif Bin Ali, researcher and journalist, moderated the discussion.

  • Guest lecturer 11 October 2018

    Delimitation of Maritime Zones and Boundaries

    Department of Law, North South University

    The lecture, given at North South University on 11 October 2018, covers the maritime zones of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

    It opens with Tommy Koh’s description of the Convention as ‘A Constitution for the Oceans’ and with the principle ‘The land dominates the sea.’ It then sets out the Convention’s provisions zone by zone: the territorial sea and its baselines, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, the continental shelf, the high seas, and straits used for international navigation.

    It ends with the regime of islands under article 121, including the rule that rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.

  • Speaker, round table 6 October 2018

    Privacy and Data Security

    Telecom Reporter's Network Bangladesh (TRNB), Dhaka

  • Speaker 16 September 2018

    Characterising State Effectuated Refugee Outflows as Transboundary Harm

    1st Senior Advocate Ozair Farooq Memorial Law Conference, Faculty of Law, University of Dhaka, Dhaka

    The presentation of the paper at the Ozair Farooq Memorial Law Conference in September 2018 asks on what basis a State generating refugees is liable to the host State.

    It sets aside whether generating refugee outflows is an internationally wrongful act and argues, applying the principle of transboundary harm, that ‘the fundamental question is not whether the act of the State of origin is illegal, rather, whether that act has caused any harm to the host State.’ It concedes this may not significantly change State practice.

    It concludes that this liability ‘removes the question of legality of the actions of the State of origin thereby piercing a veil of legality behind which States effectuating refugee outflows have hidden in the past.’

  • Organiser 19 July 2018

    Workshop on International Mooting

    School of Law, BRAC University, Dhaka

    The School of Law at BRAC University held this three-day training workshop from 19 to 21 July 2018 for more than fifty students, and seven facilitators delivered it.

    The workshop outline divides the programme into stages. Legal research covers analysing the moot problem, dividing the issues among a team of four, databases, the sources of international law and their hierarchy, case law from different courts, and compiling the research. Memorial drafting covers OSCOLA referencing, building a legal argument, previous memorials, formatting and penalties.

    The oral advocacy material covers court decorum, opening a submission, rebuttal, signposting, time management, forms of address, tone and pace, answering the judges’ questions, and the supporting materials an oralist brings to the bench.

  • Speaker 19 July 2018

    The Creation of Bangladesh: Remedial Secession or Fait Accompli?

    Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) Conference 2018, National University of Singapore, Singapore

    The presentation, given at the TWAIL conference in Singapore in July 2018, asks whether the creation of Bangladesh was a remedial secession under the right of self-determination or, in James Crawford’s terms, a fait accompli achieved through foreign military assistance.

    It argues that Bangladesh ‘qualified as an ideal, as ideal it can be, case for Remedial Secession under the contemporary norms regarding self-determination.’ It treats reliance on the colonial territorial framework, and the priority given to territorial integrity, as means of denying self-determination to the fourth world.

    Its final point concerns colonisation between Third World entities: ‘It is problematic to assume that the West and the Westernised world is only capable of being a colonial power.’

  • Panellist 17 March 2018

    It's Not Her Fault

    Voice for Change, Dhaka

  • Guest lecturer 10 March 2018

    The Right of Self-determination and Secession in Contemporary International Law

    Department of Law, North South University

  • Chair, two sessions 20 June 2016

    Science, Technology, Security: Challenges to global governance

    UCL Global Governance Institute, London

  • Keynote speaker 30 September 2014

    Legal Awareness Building

    School of Law, BRAC University, with the Rotary Club of Dhaka South, Dhaka

    A seminar talk on why legal awareness matters, given to mark Youth Service Month.

    Its argument starts from where law comes from. Rules are formed out of two things, past custom and the necessities of the future, and social belief shapes them while they are being made. Once settled, though, the law takes priority over the custom that produced it, and it is the law rather than the custom that then dictates what people may do.

    That is the case for awareness programmes: they are the most effective mechanism for informing people of an issue and for shifting perceptions of what is socially acceptable.