Dr Mohamed M Keshavjee, former member of the Board of Governors of The Institute of Ismaili Studies, was invited to present a memorial lecture in honour of Henry Brown, one of the founders of the Family Mediators Association (FMA) of the United Kingdom, at its annual conference in Liverpool on 18 June 2025. Henry Brown passed away in Whitstable in February 2025.
Speaking in the presence of President Lord Justice Sir Andrew Moylan and Chairperson Anna Vollans, Dr Keshavjee highlighted that his first encounter with Henry Brown was at the inauguration of the International Training Programme on Mediation of the Ismaili Conciliation and Arbitration Boards (CAB) in July 2000. The CAB Mediation training was conducted under the direct guidance of Prince Karim al-Hussaini, Aga KhanA title granted by the Shah of Persia to the then Ismaili Imam in 1818 and inherited by each of his successors to the Imamate. IV.
Dr Keshavjee spoke of how Aga Khan IV was a visionary in this field and sought to refurbish a traditional dispute resolution system followed by the Ismaili Muslims for over a millennium, incorporating new principles of dispute resolution developed in the Western world in recent times. Aga Khan IV wanted the ethical values of Islam to form the cornerstone of this new programme. Henry Brown, who was associated with the Centre of Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), one of the training organisations chosen by Aga Khan IV, became one of the first trainers. The Ismaili CAB training programme on mediation with rollouts in some 25 countries went on to become one of the most respected culturally sensitive mediation training programmes in the world. “Henry Brown was a brilliant legal practitioner,” said Dr Keshavjee, “but his forensic brilliance lay in his ability to find a negotiated settlement which was fair, just, and equitable. It is here that he excelled both as a practitioner and a trainer.”
“His forensic brilliance lay in his ability to find a negotiated settlement which was fair, just, and equitable. It is here that he excelled both as a practitioner and a trainer.”
Dr Keshavjee spoke of Henry Brown’s early career as a lawyer and confidant of Nelson Mandela in the mid-1960s when the latter was a prisoner on Robben Island. Mr Mandela placed great confidence in Brown whom he found to be diligent, compassionate and proficient.
Dr Keshavjee also spoke of Henry Brown’s contribution to the training of members of the South African Judiciary in 2021 through an online programme he had led with volunteer trainers from a number of countries. Henry gladly gave of his time and his expertise as a volunteer trainer,” said Dr Keshavjee.
Over the past seven years, despite his ailing health, Henry Brown worked very closely with Dr Keshavjee on a paper on faith-based mediation in the Islamic and Jewish traditions showing how mediation takes place in the shadow of various laws and customary practices. This comparative study has been submitted to the European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance, awaiting peer review in the hope of a 2026 publication.
Judge Moylan, in his vote of thanks, expressed deep appreciation for the close collaboration between the CAB and Henry Brown, showing the value of sharing best practices in a field that is still evolving.
