Dr. Christophe Fournier was the formal president of the Médecins Sans Frontières organisation (MSF).
Fournier received an M.D. from the Université d'Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and holds a degree in tropical medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics. [1] He has worked as a doctor or head of mission in field projects in Burundi, Uganda, Honduras and Chile, as well as conducting emergency exploratory missions in Mexico and Venezuela. In 2000, he became MSF's operations manager, working in the United States, and managing field programs in Guatemala, Haiti, Nigeria, Sudan, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. He became president in December 2006. [2]
Médecins Sans Frontières, sometimes referred to in English as Doctors Without Borders, is an international humanitarian medical non-governmental organisation (NGO) of French origin best known for its projects in conflict zones and in countries affected by endemic diseases. Main areas of work include diabetes, drug-resistant infections, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, tropical and neglected diseases, tuberculosis, vaccines and COVID. They contribute to patents and intellectual property subjects, as well as research and development. In 2019, the group was active in 70 countries with over 35,000 personnel; mostly local doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, logistical experts, water and sanitation engineers, and administrators. Private donors provide about 90% of the organisation's funding, while corporate donations provide the rest, giving MSF an annual budget of approximately US$1.63 billion.
Humanitarian aid workers belonging to United Nations organisations, PVOs / NGOs or the Red Cross / Red Crescent have traditionally enjoyed both international legal protection, and de facto immunity from attack by belligerent parties. However, attacks on humanitarian workers have occasionally occurred, and became more frequent since the 1990s and 2000s. In 2017, the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD) documented 139 humanitarian workers killed in intentional attacks out of the estimated global population of 569,700 workers. In every year since 2013, more than 100 humanitarian workers were killed. This is attributed to a number of factors, including the increasing number of humanitarian workers deployed, the increasingly unstable environments in which they work, and the erosion of the perception of neutrality and independence. In 2012 road travel was seen to be the most dangerous context, with kidnappings of aid workers quadrupling in the last decade, reaching more aid workers victims than any other form of attack.
James Jude Orbinski, is a Canadian physician, humanitarian activist, author and leading scholar in global health. Orbinski was the 2016-17 Fulbright Visiting professor at the University of California, Irvine, and as of September 1, 2017, he is professor and inaugural director of the Dahdaleh Institute of Global Health Research at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was previously the CIGI Chair in Global Health Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and Wilfrid Laurier University (2012-2017), Chair of Global Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (2010-2012) and full professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto (2003-2012), where he was the founding Saul Rae Fellow at Massey College. Orbinski's current research interests focus on the health impacts of climate change, medical humanitarianism, intervention strategies around emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, and global health governance.
Bernard Kouchner KBE is a French politician and doctor. He is the co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Médecins du Monde. From 2007 until 2010, he was the French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs in the center-right Fillon government under president Nicolas Sarkozy, although he had been in the past a minister in socialist governments. In 2010, The Jerusalem Post considered Bernard Kouchner the 15th most influential Jew in the world. Since 2015 Kouchner is workstream leader for the AMU, where he contributes his expertise in healthcare.
Egil Kristian Tynæs was a Norwegian anthroposophical doctor, senior physician at the Municipal Clinic in Bergen and a humanitarian aid worker. On June 2, 2004, in Badghis, Afghanistan Tynæs and four others were killed in an ambush whilst working for the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières.
Avril Benoît is the executive director of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières in the United States (MSF-USA). Previously, Ms. Benoît served as Director of Communications and Fundraising with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders at its operational centre based in Geneva, Switzerland. She is a Canadian former broadcaster best known for her radio programmes and documentaries on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. From 2006 to 2012, after two decades in journalism, she joined MSF in Canada as director of communications. She has worked as a humanitarian country director and project coordinator with Médecins Sans Frontières, in Mauritania, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa.
Jean-Christophe Rufin is a French doctor, diplomat, historian, globetrotter and novelist. He is the president of Action Against Hunger, one of the earliest members of Médecins Sans Frontières, and a member of the Académie française.
Jill Seaman is an American doctor who used to work with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). She is a native of Moscow, Idaho and a graduate of Middlebury College and the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Rowan Gillies is a plastic surgeon from Sydney, Australia and is a VMO Plastic Surgery at Royal North Shore Hospital. He has a specific interest in skin cancer, reconstruction and breast reconstruction as well as the management of severe burns and trauma. He is the youngest ever International Council President of the Nobel Prize–winning Médecins Sans Frontières.
Médecins du monde, or Doctors of the World, is an international humanitarian organization which provides emergency and long-term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. It also advocates to end health inequities.
Marilyn McHarg, is a humanitarian executive. She was President and CEO of Dignitas International, as well as a founding member and General Director of the Canadian section of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders, the world's leading independent medical humanitarian organization.
Bernard Pécoul is the executive director of the Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). Prior to his involvement with the DNDi, Pécoul was executive director for Médecins Sans Frontières's campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, executive director of MSF-France, co-founder of the centre for epidemiological research Epicentre, and a MSF field physician in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. He is an outspoken patient advocate and proponent of increased research and development of treatments and innovation for neglected diseases.
Didier Lefèvre (1957–2007) was a French photojournalist. His photos have appeared in many French magazines, including L'Express and Éditions Ouest France. He was best known for co-authoring the book The Photographer, which told the story of his travels with a Médecins Sans Frontières mission during the Soviet–Afghan War.
Joanne Liu, M.D., O.Q., M.S.C, is a Canadian pediatric emergency medicine physician, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Montreal, Professor of Clinical Medicine at McGill University, and the previous International President of Médecins sans Frontières. She was elected president during MSF's International General Assembly in June 2013.
On 3 October 2015, a United States Air Force AC-130U gunship attacked the Kunduz Trauma Centre operated by Médecins Sans Frontières in the city of Kunduz, in the province of the same name in northern Afghanistan. 42 people were killed and over 30 were injured. Médecins Sans Frontières condemned the incident, calling it a deliberate breach of international humanitarian law and a war crime. It further stated that all warring parties had been notified about the hospital and its operations well in advance.
Basroch refugee camp was situated in Grande-Synthe, Dunkirk, France. It began as an informal refugee camp in a muddy field in about 2006. As late as summer 2015 it still only contained about 60 residents, but by January 2016 the camp had expanded to more than 2000 people.
Javid Abdelmoneim is a British-born physician and television presenter. He is best known for his work with Médecins Sans Frontières which has seen him respond to crises in Iraq (2009), Haiti (2010), South Sudan (2014), Sierra Leone (2014), Syria (2017-2018) and also aboard the Aquarius (2016), a search and rescue ship run in partnership between MSF and SOS Mediteranée. Most recently, Abdelmoneim served as a Member of the Board of Trustees and was also elected the youngest serving president and chair of the Board for MSF UK.
Christos Christou M.D. is the international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Leslie Shanks M.D. is a Canadian medical doctor who served as the president of Médecins Sans Frontières Canada, the medical director of MSF Netherlands, and who led humanitarian responses in Yugoslavia, Zaire and Sudan.
Unni Karunakara M.D. is an Indian-born physician, an academic, and was the international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from 2010 to 2013.
Fournier, Christophe. 2009. Statement from Dr. Christophe Fournier, President of MSF International Council, on MSF expulsions from Darfur, Sudan. Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors without Borders.