Bernard Kouchner

Academy of Achievement

As Founder and first President of Doctors Without Borders (Medicins sans frontieres -- MSF), Dr. Bernard Kouchner has led medical relief teams into the worst disaster areas and bloodiest war zones of our times, often defying ruthless armed combatants, to offer aid to the suffering victims without regard to their politics. Affirming Kouchner's dictum that "mankind's suffering belongs to all men," MSF enters disaster zones with or without the permission of the government in place, and exposes human rights abuses wherever it finds them. Dr. Kouchner himself has led relief teams into Cambodia, Thailand, El Salvador and Rwanda, and undertook several covert aid missions to Afghanistan during the long conflict there. Dr. Kouchner has served as a Minister of State in successive French governments, including terms as Minister of Health and Humanitarian Aid, and has also served as a Member of the European Parliament. He has long argued that liberal democracies have a duty to defend human rights,