Masters of the Bench

Full Title: Mr Param Cumaraswamy

Category: Honorary Bencher

Bench Call Date: 07-10-2003

Bio:

Barrister-at-law at Inner Temple, London, and practising law in Kuala Lumpur since 1967.  A former President of the Malaysian Bar between 1986-1988 was also one of the founder members of the Malaysian Bar Council’s Human Rights and Legal Aid Committees.  President of the Law Association of Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA) from 1993 -1995.  A Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists since 1990, its Vice-President between 2004 and May 2005.  In 1994 was appointed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers by the UN Commission on Human Rights and served on that mandate until 2003.  A founder member of Transparency International - Malaysia and served as its Vice President and President from Jan. 2005 – Feb. 2006. He is a founder member  of the Regional Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism of which he is currently a co- chairman.

In 2003 he was conferred the Justice in the World award by the International Association of Judges; in the same year he was conferred honorary membership to the Law Society of England and Wales; he was also called to the Bench of the Honorable Society of the Middle Temple as an Honorary Bencher. In 2005 he received the Peter Gruber Foundation’s Justice Prize.