Bernard Kouchner is the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of France
He was born on 1 November 1939 in Avignon (Vaucluse)
Qualifications
- Doctor of medicine
- Certificat d’études spéciales [specialist qualification] in gastroenterology
- Diploma in digestive endoscopy
Career
- Lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2003
- Professor, Chair of Health and Development, at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers [CNAM - national school of engineering and technology] since 2002
- Senior civil servant and United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Kosovo (1999-2001)
- Founder (1980), president (1980-1984) and honorary president (1984-1988) of Médecins du Monde [non-profit organization whose members, all voluntary and doctors and nurses, help in times of emergency and situations of inadequate medical care in the third world]
- Co-founder and president of Médecins sans Frontières (1971-1979)
- Gastroenterologist at the Hôpital Cochin in Paris (1975-1987)
- Humanitarian missions to help victims in most of the major natural and industrial disasters and political crises since 1968
Elective offices
- MEP (1994-1997)
- Ministerial offices
- Minister Delegate for Health (2001-2002)
- Minister of State for Health (1997-1999)
- Minister for Health and Humanitarian Action (1992-1993)
- Minister of State with responsibility for Humanitarian Action (1988-1992)
- Minister of State with responsibility for Social Integration (1988)
Other offices
- Chairman of the ESTHER public interest group [“Together in a hospital network of solidarity in care and treatment”]
- Founder-Chairman of BK Consultants
- Member of the Board of Directors, PlaNet Finance
- Member of the Honorary Committee, Children Action
- Member of the Board of Directors, International Women’s Health Coalition
- Founder-member of [the French humanitarian organization] “La chaîne de l’espoir”
Recently published works
- Deux ou trois choses que je sais de nous, Editions Robert Laffont, 2006
- La Fabrique démocratique, Editions Robert Laffont, 2006
- Les guerriers de la paix : Du Kosovo à l’Irak, Editions Grasset, 2004 [published in English as “The Warriors of Peace”]
(May 2007)
