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.

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.

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].

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

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.

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