Looking back on Rony Brauman's "Activist of Humanitarianism" career.
Rony Brauman
Medical doctor, specialized in tropical medicine and epidemiology. Involved in humanitarian action since 1977, he has been on numerous missions, mainly in contexts of armed conflicts and IDP situations. President of Médecins sans Frontières from 1982 to1994, he also teaches at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) and is a regular contributor to Alternatives Economiques. He has published several books and articles, including "Guerre humanitaires ? Mensonges et Intox" (Textuel, 2018), "La Médecine Humanitaire" (PUF, 2010), "Penser dans l'urgence" (Editions du Seuil, 2006) and "Utopies Sanitaires" (Editions Le Pommier, 2000).
Rony Brauman looks back on his humanitarian career in the France Culture program "A voix nue". This series of podcasts (recorded in French) of 5 episodes entitled "Activist of Humanitarianism" is an opportunity for the former president of MSF to retrace the key events that have marked his career and explains - while trying to move away from the Bourdieusian biographical illusion - how his political commitment has structured his vision and his practices of humanitarian action.
Episode 1 : « Waking up to the fights »
Born into a Zionist family, Rony Brauman was initiated into extreme left-wing activism with his legs and his fists as his first weapons. Between intellectual apprenticeship and street fights, he recounts an intense political awakening that is still full of questions.
Episode 2 : « Care across borders »
From his first contacts with medicine, Rony Brauman kept a fascination for the hospital. But it was when he became a bush doctor in Benin and then worked in refugee camps in Thailand that he understood his vocation: to provide emergency care.
Episode 3 : « Humanitarianism in movement »
At the beginning of the 1980s, humanitarian work became more organized. Rony Brauman took over as head of Médecins sans Frontières in 1982. The first years were turbulent, with strong internal debates and an impressive increase in the number of fields of action.
Episode 4 : « The lesser evil : aid and its dilemmas »
How to act as a humanitarian worker when aid is instrumentalized? When one becomes aware of the possibility of doing more harm than good despite oneself? Since the famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s, this question has never left Rony Brauman.
Episode 5 : « Overcoming compassion »
Since the beginning of the 1990s, wars have been waged in the name of humanitarianism. Rony Brauman is not an absolute pacifist and has himself called for armed intervention on several occasions, but he is opposed to the use of humanitarianism as a pretext for war.
All episodes of the podcast "Militant de l'humanitaire" are available on France Culture.
MSF/Europe 1 Studio
In the media
Première ligne, 50 ans d’humanitaire
06/09/2021À l'occasion du 50ème anniversaire de Médecins Sans Frontières, l'association et Europe 1 Studio ont lancé un podcast de douze épisodes intitulé « Première ligne ». Ces épisodes permettent de revenir sur cinq décennies d’action humanitaire racontée par celles et ceux qui l’ont vécue.
Retour sur les épisodes avec Rony Brauman et Jean-Hervé Bradol, tous deux anciens présidents de MSF et membres actuels du CRASH.
Francis Apesteguy
Interview
"On a fait sans vaccin, sans pharma, avec ce dont on disposait"
06/19/2021Cet entretien a été réalisé par Célia Héron pour Le Temps, et a été publié pour la première fois le 19 juin 2021.
Cette année, Médecins sans frontières fête les 50 ans de son étonnante histoire. A l’occasion du lancement de plusieurs événements à travers le monde ce mois-ci, Le Temps donne la parole à celui qui fut président de MSF de 1982 à 1994.
Caroline Thirion/MSF
In the media
Les ONG, actrices de la transmission du savoir pour l’intérêt public
03/27/2021À l’occasion de la journée mondiale des ONGs, Rony Brauman a participé à une interview pour France Info sur le rôle des ONGS dans la société civile en tant que créatrices d'emplois et formatrices d'acteurs humanitaires.