MONTREAL - 28 NOVEMBER 2001 - Dr. Sima Samar of Afghanistan, this year's winner of Rights & Democracy's human rights award will arrive in Canada on Friday, November 30 to begin a cross-country tour from Vancouver to Halifax. She is to receive the John Humphrey Freedom Award at a ceremony in Montreal on December 10, International Human Rights Day.
Dr. Samar was selected for the Award in recognition of her brave work to promote the rights of Afghan women and girls. Since 1989, her schools for girls and health clinics in Afghanistan, and in the refugee camps of Quetta, Pakistan, have challenged the attempts of successive regimes to deny women their basic rights to education, employment, mobility and medical care. Today, Dr. Samar runs four hospitals and 10 clinics in Afghanistan and a further hospital in Quetta. Her schools in rural Afghanistan are attended by more than 20,000 students; over 1,000 Afghan refugee girls attend Dr. Samar's school in Quetta.
Speaking from Pakistan, Dr. Samar told Rights & Democracy this week that the departure of the Taliban from Kabul and other cities in Afghanistan is a welcome development. "But just because some women have removed their burqas does not mean that there is respect for women's rights," she cautioned. Only a democratic process with women actively involved can guarantee these rights, Dr. Samar said.
While in Canada, the John Humphrey Freedom Award laureate will be meeting with government officials, women's rights groups, universities and international organizations. She will call on Canada to play a leading role to promote respect for women's rights in the new Afghanistan.
"We wish for a broad-based government with the active participation of women, which will promote freedom and equal rights for women," Dr. Samar said. "This will only happen if the international community, with the help of a multinational force, helps Afghans to set up a transitional government, which would then organize free and fair elections. It is a long process, and it won't be easy, but we will not give up."
Rights & Democracy's President, Warren Allmand, has stressed the organization's support for Dr. Samar's efforts in this work. "We will be requesting that John Manley, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, do all in his power to urge all parties involved to ensure that Afghan women are part of the new government in Afghanistan, part of the peacebuilding efforts and part of the political and civil society reconstruction of their country."
Dr. Samar will visit Vancouver (December 1), Victoria (December 4), Edmonton (December 5), Calgary (December 6-7), Montreal (December 10), Halifax and Fredericton (December 11), Ottawa (December 12), Toronto (December 14) and Guelph (December 15). The Award ceremony will take place on December 10, at 5 p.m. at the Théâtre Gesù, 1200 Bleury St, in Montreal.
For further information: Mary Durran or Patricia Poirier at (514) 283-6073; cell: (514) 998-0536.
Rights & Democracy (International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development) is a Canadian institution with an international mandate. It is an independent organization, which promotes, advocates and defends the democratic and human rights set out in the International Bill of Human Rights. In cooperation with civil society and governments in Canada and abroad, Rights & Democracy initiates and supports programmes to strengthen laws and democratic institutions, principally in developing countries.
Rights & Democracy focuses its work on four thematic priorities: Democratic Development, Women's Rights, the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Globalization and Human Rights; and two special operations: International Human Rights Advocacy and Urgent Action and Important Opportunities.
