Dr Sima Samar has served as a human rights defender for over 40 years, dedicating much of her life to promoting and advocating for democracy and the rights of the world’s impoverished, marginalised, and underrepresented populations.
Dr. Samar began her career as a medical doctor providing health care in Afghanistan’s most isolated and marginalized region and experienced displacement and statelessness herself as the conflict in Afghanistan escalated. She went on to serve as Afghanistan’s first-ever female Vice President, Minister of Women’s Affairs, Chairperson for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, and as UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Sudan, and has been selected by the UN Secretary-General to be a member of the High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation and, as of 2020, a member of the High-Level Panel for Internal Displacements.
Main Image: Sima Samar, Flickr, Sima Samar at the conference “Empowered Women, Prosperous Afghanistan” in Brussels
