Humanitarian actors and practices

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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Rwandan Refugees in Congo Frederic Sautereau News in brief

Listen to the MSF Speaking Out podcast: “The Hunting and Killing of Rwandan refugees in Zaire-Congo 1996-1997”.

01/05/2023 Laurence Binet

MSF releases the podcast “MSF Speaking Out: The Hunting and Killing of Rwandan refugees in Zaire-Congo 1996-1997” describing the dilemmas, challenges and controversies faced by the MSF teams including: could MSF communicate publicly on the health condition of the refugees when its access to them had recently been denied? When it realised its teams were being used to lure and kill refugees, should the organisation cease its activities and condemn this manipulation?

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Plumpy’Nut is being handed out in Ndougoury village. Djerabe Ndegrgar Opinion

Resale of therapeutic food: who benefits from demonising mothers?

12/30/2022 Michel-Olivier Lacharité

This article was published on December 26th, 2022 on the Souk, the MSF associative website.
Accusing the mothers of malnourished children of being lawless fraudsters is a well-worn trope in malnutrition treatment programmes worldwide – and one that has resurfaced recently in Nigeria, stirred up by health workers and the media. These types of accusations obscure a series of tricky truths on the control of resources, the quality of malnutrition treatment programmes, and on the extreme precariousness in which many families live. We see all of this in northwest Nigeria’s Katsina state, where we are currently conducting the largest malnutrition programme in the history of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

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illustration l'humanitaire s'exhibe Analysis

The Humanitarian Exhibition (1867-2016)

05/16/2022 Bertrand Taithe

The Swiss editor Georg just published in open access a collection of articles edited by Sébastien Farré, Jean-François Fayet and Bertrand Taithe. This book is devoted to the emergence of humanitarian exhibitions either within wider events or in their own right, as an attempt to focus attention and make sense of the aid humanitarians provided. The book argues that this exhibition process was central to the narration of the humanitarian project. It did not simply represent humanitarian work, it helped shape its essential identity and sense of purpose. Entail the development of new ways of thinking about needs and emergencies.

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Jean-Christophe Nougaret/MSF Jean-Christophe Nougaret/MSF Analysis

About the possibility of controlling an HIV epidemic hotspot

11/14/2021 Elba Rahmouni Pierre Mendiharat Léon Salumu Luzinga

This article was first released in the 18th volume of the Humanitarian Alternatives magazine. Designed to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS in a Kenyan district, a Médecins Sans Frontières project successfully exceeded the “90-90-90” target set by UNAIDS. A look back on the results that the authors of this article - Pierre Mendiharat, Deputy director of operations at MSF France and Léon Salumu Luzinga, Program manager at MSF France, interviewed by Elba Rahmouni - believe are encouraging but by no means a guarantee that the epidemic will be over by 2030.

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Violences extrêmes. Enquêter, secourir, juger République démocratique du Congo, Rwanda, Syrie MSF-Crash Book

Extreme violence. Investigating, Saving, Judging Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Syria

09/23/2021 Laëtitia Atlani-Duault Jean-Hervé Bradol Marc Le Pape

Over the last few years, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Syria have been places where situations of extreme violence took place. As witnesses and investigators of such, the authors of this book shed light on three key-moments that marked these tragic episodes:  the investigation, the intervention of emergency relief teams and the implementation of justice procedures leading to judgement.

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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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