Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations (iNADO) chair Doug MacQuarrie has defended his members right to make public statements and demand stronger sanctions for Russian doping following criticism from the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).
A resolution was passed at last week's ANOC General Assembly in Prague that was attended by Bermuda Olympic Association President Judy Simons and Secretary General Stanley Douglas.
ANOC deeming it "unacceptable" that anti-doping organizations have demanded specific sanctions in the public domain before two International Olympic Committee (IOC)-commissioned investigations have completed their work.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-commissioned McLaren Report published last year allegedly found evidence of institutional level doping and sample tampering at the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi.
ANOC claimed that national anti-doping organizations are service organizations who should "not be engaged in making political statements".
Both of these points have been challenged in a letter sent to ANOC President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah.
MacQuarrie said it "flies in the face of reality and is therefore startling" for ANOC to suggest they should not take public positions and claimed it "would be irresponsible for NADOs to ignore the McLaren evidence and not take a public position".
"NADOs are not merely 'service organizations'," he wrote in a letter seen by insidethegames.
"They never have been.
"NADOs are the largest group of anti-doping organizations in the world.
"NADOs are the only Signatories to the World Anti-Doping Code uniquely dedicated to protecting clean sport.
"All other Signatories exist for other purposes - generally to promote and administer sport - to which anti-doping is ancillary.
"NADOs are dedicated to clean sport in a way that the IOC and its National Olympic Committees, the International Paralympic Committee and its National Paralympic Committees, and International Federations and their National Federations, can never be."
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