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Rony Brauman

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).

Interview

Thinking on and beyond the concept of de-westernization

10/16/2023 Rony Brauman

This interview by Didier Billion and Marc Verzeroli was originally published in the Revue internationale et stratégique. To examine the concept of de-westernization, Rony Brauman describes the current state of international relations, marked by fluid alliances and new power relationships. He states and details his reservations about whether universal values truly exist and how the international criminal justice system functions.

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image ce que nous dit le sida Njiiri Karago/MSF Analysis

What AIDS teaches us

09/16/2022 Rony Brauman

In this article, Rony Brauman identifies the dynamics and events that made bending the HIV/AIDS epidemic curve possible. He explains the climate in which the tug-of-war with parts of the pharmaceutical industry played out from MSF’s perspective, and recalls that fears about international security and political stability also helped push governments to mobilise against the epidemic.

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Christophe Ayad, journalist at Le Monde and host, Hakim Khaldi, researcher, Célian Macé, journalist at Liberation and Rony Brauman, former president of MSF speak during a debate questioning the relevance and the related dilemmas to interventions in countries plagued by radical groups. MSF 50th anniversary festival in Pantin, June 2021. Pierre Hybre In the media

Looking back on Rony Brauman's "Activist of Humanitarianism" career.

09/06/2021 Rony Brauman

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. 

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Raqqa Eddy Van Wessel In the media

Does international humanitarian law legitimise wars?

03/26/2020 Rony Brauman

On March 8, 2020, the FIFDH Geneva organised a debate between Rony Brauman, Annyssa Bellal - Strategic Adviser on International Humanitarian Law - and Amani Ballour, a paediatrician who spent five years in an underground hospital in Syria and the protagonist of the film The Cave, to answer the question "Does international humanitarian law legitimise wars ?"

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Sanitation activities in urban slum, Haiti MSF/Lauranne Grégoire Review

About "Choléra, Haïti, 2010-2018, Histoire d’un désastre" by Renaud Piarroux

12/23/2019 Rony Brauman

The cholera outbreak in Haiti in October 2010 was among the deadliest in modern history, with 800,000 people infected and 10,000 fatalities. And these are just the official figures. The actual death toll was far higher, as evidenced by numerous retrospective mortality surveys, and can only be expressed as an order of magnitude: to wit, several tens of thousands.   
This book recounts eight years of struggle on two fronts that the author shows to be closely linked: the field, with the implementation of measures of prevention and case management; the scientific debate, in the form of a shattering of the dominant environmental theory concerning the origin of the epidemic.

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The shared MSF / ICRC helicopter exchanging passengers in Gumuruk. In the rainy season helicopter is the only reliable way to move around Pibor County in South Sudan. Robin Meldrum/MSF Analysis

Oases of Humanity and the Realities of War. Uses and Misuses of International Humanitarian Law and Humanitarian Principles

06/28/2019 Rony Brauman

The rehabilitation of international humanitarian law (IHL) has become a priority for those who think that the horrors of contemporary wars are largely due to the blurring of the distinction between civilians and combatants and for those who think that campaigning for the respect of IHL could result in more civilised wars. Similarly, respect for humanitarian principles is still seen by many as the best tool available to protect the safety of aid workers. In this text, I argue that both assumptions are misled. The distinction between civilians and combatants, a cornerstone of IHL, has been blurred in practice since the late nineteenth century. In addition, humanitarian agencies claiming to be ‘principled’ have been victims of attacks as much as others. History and current practice tell us that neither IHL nor humanitarian principles provide safety or can guide our decisions. Accepting their symbolic value, rather than their unrealised potential to protect and solve operational dilemmas, would free humanitarian agencies from endless speculations.

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Bourbon Argos: Search and Rescue Operations October 2016 Borja Ruiz Rodriguez/MSF Op-ed

Humanitarian reasons versus political interests

07/11/2018 Rony Brauman

Humanitarian organisations coming to the rescue of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea are kindly required either to watch them drown or to hand them over to human traffickers and torturers. We have seen countless political statements, opinion polls and editorials on the need to take a harder line against African migrants and accusing NGOs of being the accomplices of “smugglers”. We have even heard it said that these NGOs are organising the departures of those aspiring to migrate to Europe coincide with the presence of a rescue ship, making relief workers conscious actors in a criminal enterprise.

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