Bernard kouchner biography

Medecins sans Frontieres, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize may never have come into being without the drive of one of its founding members, Bernard Kouchner.

Mr Kouchner, a charismatic doctor-turned politician, was this year appointed the head of the United Nations' civil administration for Kosovo.

But it was in the 1970s and the 1980s that he made a name for himself and the organisation he co-founded by speaking out against human rights abuses around the world.

The former French health minister once declared that "mankind's suffering belongs to all men" and his Kosovo appointment is arguably the achievement of a lifetime of work for human rights.

It is an attitude which he sought to embed in MSF, helping it to develop a reputation as the aid agency which would remain behind even when others had pulled out.

Human rights activist

Born in 1939 in Avignon, Bernard Kouchner trained as a doctor and for decades has been inextricably linked with the French tradition of human