Biography of the Foreign Minister - M. Bernard Kouchner
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-making 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 Financeru
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”]