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BERNARD KOUCHNER
Minister of Foreign and European Affairs

    Born on November 1, 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 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”

    Recent 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”]

Embassy of France in the United States - May 23, 2007