Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada

• Awarded on: May 25, 2009
• Invested on: November 17, 2010

Through decades of political hardship, repression and grave personal danger, Sima Samar has consistently defended human rights in Afghanistan and throughout the world. A physician by profession and an outspoken advocate for women's rights, she helped establish schools and medical clinics for girls and women in Afghanistan and in refugee camps in Pakistan. After the fall of the Taliban regime, she served as deputy prime minister and minister for women's affairs in Afghanistan's interim government. In these and other roles, including as chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, she helped lay the groundwork for far-reaching change in the administration of social justice. She is the former United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Sudan, has worked closely with Canadian officials through many of her endeavours, and has earned numerous international human rights awards.