CAC Saint Louis would like to shine a spotlight on Dr. Sima Samar

On July 7th the CAC Saint Louis recommended the documentary Daughters of Afghanistan where many for the first time heard the name Dr. Sima Samar. CAC Saint Louis would like the world to not only recognize her name but also know what she promotes and who she stands for as a woman.

Dr. Sima Samar is the Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and, since 2005, United Nations Special Reporter on the situation of human rights in Sudan. Before chairing the Commission, she was elected as the Vice Chair of the Emergency Loya Jirga in 2002. At the Bonn meeting in 2001, Dr. Samar was chosen to be the first Deputy Chair and Minister of Women's Affairs in the Interim Administration of Afghanistan. She was the first Hazara woman to achieve this in Afghanistan.


Dr. Samar has received various international awards for her work on human rights and democracy. In 2001 she received the John Humphrey Freedom Award. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Dr. Samar was forced to flee after her husband was arrested. He was never heard from again. In Pakistan, Dr. Samar worked to set up medical services for Afghan refugees and a school for refugee girls. She practiced medicine in a border refugee camp before opening the first hospital for women, staffed by women in Quetta in 1987.


In 1989, she established the Shuhada Organization, a non-governmental and non-profit organization committed to the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan with special emphasis on the empowerment of women and children.


In all, Dr. Samar opened 10 Afghan clinics and four hospitals for women and children, as well as schools in rural Afghanistan for more than 17,000 students.


Literacy programs established by her organization were accompanied by distribution of food aid and information on hygiene and family planning.


"I've always been in danger, but I don't mind," she said. "I believe we will die one day so I said let's take the risk and help somebody else."


On 13 December 2006, at its fourth special session, the Human Rights Council adopted by consensus decision S-4/101 on the situation of human rights in Darfur, in which it decided to dispatch a High-Level Mission (HLM) with the mandate "to assess the human rights situation in Darfur and the needs of the Sudan in this regard and to report to the Council at its fourth session to be held from 12 March to 5 April 2007".

HLM wanted to visit Khartoum to talk to officials and to investigate with victims and witnesses, but the Sudanese authorities did not issue visas for the mission to enter the Sudan. HLM got its brief from Chad, Addis etc and reported to the Security Council accordingly. As a result of this situation there were differences between Sima Samar and the government of Sudan. Now, Sudan is seeking to end Sima Samar's mandate.

Source: http://www.mirayafm.org