Bernard Kouchner

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Bernard Kouchner (born November 1, 1939 in Avignon) is a French politician, diplomat, and doctor. He is co-founder of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and of Médecins du Monde.

[edit] Career

Born to a Jewish father and a protestant mother, he began his political career as a member of the French Communist Party (PCF), from which he was excluded in 1966. He worked as a physician for the Red Cross in Biafra in 1968 (during the Nigerian Civil War). He founded MSF in 1971, and then, due to a conflict of opinion with MSF chairman Claude Malhuret, the Médecins du Monde (1980).

He is a long-time advocate of Humanitarian interference. In early 2003, he pronounced himself in favour of the United States intervention in Iraq, arguing that interference against dictatorship should be a global priority, and continued to say that now the focus should be on the actual people themselves, and that they are the only ones who could answer yes or no to war.

On July 15 1999, pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1244, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan nominated Kouchner as the first UN Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo [1]. During 18 monthes, he led UN efforts to create a new civil administration and political system replacing the Serbian ones, and to rebuild the economy shattered by three years of civil war. Thus, municipal councils were elected at local level by the end of 2000 [2]. He was replaced on 21 January 2001.

In 2005, Kouchner was candidate for the position of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but lost the appointment in favor of former Portuguese Prime Minister, António Guterres, who was nominated by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. One of Kouchner statements on behalf of his candidature can be found on the International Council of Voluntary Agencies site.

In 2006, Kouchner was also candidate to become Director-General of the World Health Organisation[3]. He lost before the final election round and Chinese candidate Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun was later elected. Both failures may hint at the distrust of world state officials to an advocate of humanitarian interference.

Kouchner is married to the journalist Christine Ockrent, his second wife.

[edit] Positions held

• Became the first "Secrétaire d'état" (lower ministerial cabinet) in charge of humanitarian action from 1988 to 1992 (in the Michel Rocard cabinet.)
• Health Minister in 1992-1993 (under Pierre Bérégovoy).
• Member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1997.
• State Secretary for Health from 1997 to 1999.
• Representing Administrator of the United Nations in Kosovo from 1999 to 2001.
• Health-Delegated Minister from 2001 to 2002.

Preceded by Claude Evin

French Minister of Health 1992–1993

Succeeded by Simone Veil

[edit] External links

• Bernard Kouchner discusses, The Future of Humanitarianism, at the Carnegie Council
• Bernard Kouchner Bio at Greater Talent Network (Speakers Bureau)
• Kosovo’s Kouchner, Inventor Of ‘Humanitarian Interventionism’, To Monitor Sri Lanka, Asian Tribune, 25 December 2006