Why I resigned from Rights & Democracy

Another article of interest on the controversy at Rights & Democracy. The author Sima Samar is head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. She served as vice-president and minister of women's affairs in the Afghan government, and was a nominee for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. She was a member of the board of directors of Rights & Democracy from 2007 until her resignation in January 2010. The new Board claimed in "an annex to the report accusing the staff of racial bias claiming there were no Jewish employees at the agency." I wonder how many Palestinians, Arabs and Muslim employees are members of this Board and the many other Boards where Stephen Harper's government makes appointments? Is this evidence of racism?
Ed CorriganBy Sima Samar, Citizen Special

For many years, I have struggled for women's rights in Afghanistan, against the threats of Taliban and other fundamentalists. I have always seen Canada as a symbol of justice and support for our efforts. It was, therefore, very difficult for me to resign in protest from Canada's leading international human rights agency, Rights & Democracy, because of the unfortunate conduct of some fellow board members.

I was distressed by their recent National Post op-ed in which they continue to make false accusations against the late president Rémy Beauregard and his committed staff. Since, in death, he can no longer defend his honour, and because of his great contributions to women's rights in Afghanistan, I feel compelled to share my views about how this once excellent institution has been destroyed under a divisive leadership.

I was elected to the board in February 2007 and witnessed the events that led to the current situation. The current board members claim they "found the problems" but did not "create them." They refer to a 2007 auditor general's report that called for greater financial oversight. But they don't mention that Beauregard was appointed by the government in June 2008 exactly to implement the 2007 report's recommendations.

They also fail to state the 2008 Five-Year Review of the agency by the Department of Foreign Affairs concluded that its operations are "managed according to accountability principles and best management practice." There is also no reference to the positive reviews of his leadership by ministers in Ottawa as well as the foreign affairs committee of Parliament.

What is most unfortunate, however, is the failure to mention that at the March 2009 board meeting, the majority considered his performance "highly satisfactory."

The newly appointed chair, Aurel Braun and vice-chair, Jacques Gauthier, were upset by three grants given to reputable Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups that had jointly investigated abuses by all sides in the Gaza conflict. The seven board members' assertion they "discovered the information only by diligently pursuing the facts" is simply not true. The staff voluntarily gave them the information at the chair's first meeting. Beauregard agreed to cut off further funding as a compromise.

Braun and Gauthier were also concerned about the UN Durban II Racism Conference. But the board had unanimously agreed to boycott it because of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hateful Holocaust denial. We assumed Braun and Gauthier would be satisfied. But then they issued a secret report on Beauregard's performance and hired a law firm to deny our repeated requests for access to its contents.

When the president finally got the report under the Access to Information Act, it became clear why they did not want it disclosed. He was falsely accused of illegal meetings with Hezbollah and Hamas simply because he attended an Arab League human rights conference in Cairo.

He was also accused of supporting terrorists for a $10,000 grant to the Palestinian human rights group Al Haq without mentioning it had previously received funds from Canada and European democracies. We were particularly shocked by an annex to the report accusing the staff of racial bias claiming there were no Jewish employees at the agency.

It became clear that board members who did not follow the chair's political agenda would either be removed or excluded from decisions. This showed disrespect for international members who had travelled so far to participate.

Braun cancelled the meeting of the board scheduled for last October at the last minute and three weeks later, two appointments were made that gave him a one-vote majority. At our January 2010 meeting this majority then voted to eliminate Guido Riveros Franck of Bolivia. At this point, I decided to resign in protest along with McGill law professor, Payam Akhavan.

After our resignations, the board voted to formally repudiate the three middle eastern grants. B'Tselem, the prominent Israeli human rights group that was one of the grant recipients, said the decision demonstrated "profound, offensive ignorance" about its role in Israeli society, noting that the Israeli Army's Judge Advocate-General had relied on its investigations. The board relied entirely on information from Gerald Steinberg's NGO Monitor, considered by many in Israel as a "blatantly political" right-wing organization.

We were aware that with a new board majority hostile to Beauregard and his staff, the agency's future was in peril. At our meeting on Jan. 7, after several months of harassment, Beauregard was visibly distraught.

Little did we know he would die that same evening. And we were in disbelief that, while his family was still mourning his death, attacks on his reputation continued through the leaking of internal documents to Gerald Steinberg and others who repeated the same baseless accusations of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic bias.

When these board members claim the dispute "is not about the Middle-East" they should remember it was they who transformed a minor issue we considered resolved into a major controversy to justify their cause.

With Beauregard gone, the board has now turned against the staff using the excuse of "ensuring accountability and transparency." Thousands of taxpayer dollars that could be helping victims in Afghanistan, Haiti, or Congo, are being spent on expensive lawyers, private investigators, external auditors and office managers, without the required bidding procedures, to harass and fire staff because they had the courage to call for the resignation of board members who treated their late president so poorly.

I have now also read that the new president, Gérard Latulippe, once testified before a provincial Commission on Reasonable Accommodation that Muslim immigration is a threat to Quebec society. Sadly, this is not the glorious image of the tolerant and fair Canada that inspires us in Afghanistan. This is a denial of rights and democracy, and the destruction of a great Canadian institution.

Sima Samar is head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. She served as vice-president and minister of women's affairs in the Afghan government, and was a nominee for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. She was a member of the board of directors of Rights & Democracy from 2007 until her resignation in January 2010.