Bernard Kouchner

Dr. Bernard Kouchner, founder of Doctors without Borde rs (Médecins sans Frontières), former Minister of Health of France, and former Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Kosovo, will be a visiting professor at HSPH and a François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center Fellow through February and March.

Dr. Kouchner will deliver the inaugural Jonathan Mann Lecture on Health and Human Rights, sponsored by the FXB Center and the Department of Social Medicine at HMS, on Thursday, March 6, Snyder Auditorium, Kresge Building, 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Afterwards, there will be a reception in the cafeteria atrium.

Jonathan Mann served as the first François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor and Center Director from 1993 to 1997. Dr. Mann and his wife, Mary Lou Clements-Mann, were killed in the crash of Swissair Flight 111 on September 2, 1998. They were en route to Geneva for an AIDS meeting at the World Health Organization. Dr. Mann is remembered for bringing attention to the nexus between human rights and public health–each is primarily concerned with ensuring the conditions in which people can lead healthy and fulfilling lives. This year’s lecture is the first of what will become a regular event commemorating Dr. Mann.

Said FXB Center Director Stephen Marks: "By bringing in distinguished speakers to address the issues of public health and human rights, we aim not only to keep Jonathan’s work alive but also to expand and strengthen his notion that the health and human rights movement has a collective responsibility to move forward, as Jonathan put it, as ‘equal partners in the belief that the world can change.’"

During his stay at HSPH, Dr. Kouchner will offer a noncredit workshop on "Globalization and Health." The workshop will comprise six sessions, held Wednesdays, February 12, 19, and 26 and March 5, 12, and 19, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the FXB Center’s Jonathan Mann Conference Room, located on the 7th floor of the FXB Building. For more information on the workshop or the Jonathan Mann Lecture, contact Pippa Amick at the FXB Center by calling 617-432-3215 or by emailing pamick@hsph.harvard.edu.