Sometime during his preteen years in a peaceful San Francisco suburb, Stephen P. Marks, new director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights, began to understand that only pure chance spared his family from the horrors of World War II and that no one deserved death, torture, and pain. This dawning realization marked the beginning of a moral consciousness that became the guiding beacon for a 30-year career intersecting the pivotal stages of development in the field of human rights.

Marks's extensive and diverse university studies provided a solid preparation for the unique demands of an international career that has encompassed the law, international consultation to government leaders, oversight of millions in foundation funding, research, training, and academic scholarship. He started his academic studies at Stanford, with a focus on civil rights issues. "It wasn't broad enough for me," he says, "so I did graduate work in France and the Middle East [leading to a diploma in Arabic from Damascus University] to gain a world perspective on how peace and human rights are achieved." According to Marks, virtually all of his academic work and degrees were directed toward that end. He now holds a doctor of laws from the Institute of the Law of Peace and Development at the Faculty of Law and Economics from the University of Nice, with additional advanced degrees from the Universities of Paris, Strasbourg, and Besancon and an honorary master of arts from Harvard University.

His first professional position began in 1969 with the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, when it was founded by Nobel Prize-winner Rene Cassin, who helped to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It would be the first of many key positions in a burgeoning field. "I've been very fortunate to work with some of the major figures who have built human rights from a marginal moral critique on the behavior of states to a mainstream feature of international and domestic policy on a scale many couldn't have even dreamed about in the late '60s," says Marks. He went on to design and implement projects in peace and disarmament research, international humanitarian law, and human rights research, among others, for ten years at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

An assignment in the un peacekeeping mission in Cambodia in 1992 was especially pivotal. He was to lead the effort to help the country change from an oppressive police state scarred by a horrendous civil war and severe poverty to a "liberal democracy based on pluralism" in the words of the Paris Peace Agreement. "One of the program's wild aspirations was to develop a climate where human rights would be respected by the entire population," says Marks. He worked closely with the country's political elite and found that their willingness to comply with the peace agreement was directly related to external pressures and quickly unraveled when they were able to reassert power in traditional ways. Yet Marks found that the people of Cambodia continued to focus on human rights.

"Cambodian society was hungry to learn about other countries' experiences, how a human rights framework could influence a new constitution," he explains. "After all, in a country where the Khmer Rouge had killed 1.7 million people and brought untold suffering to their families, the people didn't need the rest of the world to teach them about human rights abuses." The experience of seeing a civil society emerge out of conflict and sustain aspirations and commitment to human rights despite the restoration of authoritarian rule proved to be one of the most compelling experiences of his career. Marks has continued to support the Cambodian people as a human rights adviser and by exploring partnership projects with the FXB Center.

In his diverse career, Marks has also been able to realize his passion for training the next generation of human rights leaders. He has spent more than ten years directing programs and lecturing at the Cardozo School of Law at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, and most recently at Columbia University. "I want to guide young people with the same strong commitment I had," says Marks. He has developed two new classes available to Harvard School of Public Health students. In addition, this summer Marks co-directed an intensive international course on the relationship between health and human rights, along with Sofia Gruskin, director of the Program on International Health and Human Rights at the FXB Center. The course was geared toward government and agency professionals and non-governmental activists around the world.

Marks notes that his background is not typical for someone in public health, yet his professional experiences allow him to bring a "particular sensitivity and insight" to his current position. "By applying international standards through the field of human rights and humanitarian law and dealing with high-level government officials, leaders, and un decision makers, I've developed a certain awareness of the entry points where you can get something done, where you can influence behavior," he says. "At the Center, we draw upon research conducted in the context of a school of public health using epidemiology, statistics, and knowledge of health status of a population to generate change within the real world of political action."

The mutually reinforcing strengths of public health and human rights are at the heart of all FXB Center projects. "The principal institutions that deal with HIV/AIDS have already adopted or at least recognized the human rights approach because of the Center's research, education, and advocacy efforts," he says. "The challenge now is to apply the human rights framework to every other sector of health practice where it is meaningful."

Historically, the Center has focused its efforts in key areas that have the potential to make a sweeping impact in global health and human rights concerns. Under the leadership of the first FXB Center Director Jonathan Mann and his principal collaborators, Sofia Gruskin and Daniel Tarantola, the Center has maintained a strong presence in the international HIV/AIDS arena. Since Marks's arrival last fall, two new programs have been added to the Center's operations. The Program on Humanitarian Crises, led by Jennifer Leaning, examines how to improve the health and human rights of millions of refugees and other victims of armed conflicts. The Program on Human Develop-ment, led by Marks, aims to apply a human rights approach to development. "We're working with international institutions to evaluate development in terms of health, educational level, and social conditions of the population, not just in terms of economic growth," says Marks. In all of these efforts, he has begun to draw in the talents and academic resources of other Harvard centers, including the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School. "I am delighted to work with colleagues across the university to provide the leadership in this field that is expected of Harvard," he says.

Marks approaches his ambitious agenda with an infectious enthusiasm and a reality-based optimism that he has sustained through decades of effort to counteract humanity's darkest moments. On the wall by his desk hangs a framed copy of the preamble to the un Charter--a present from his father when Marks was a small boy. In his pocket Marks carries a battered copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "Visionary statements like these have guided me--I've seen them change people's lives, the way governments behave," he says, observing that cynicism and frustration are momentary. "Over the period of several decades, it's absolutely extraordinary the change that has taken place. Who would have thought that dictators are no longer immune from criminal prosecution? That perpetrators of atrocities in wars are held accountable before an international criminal court? That trained human rights specialists have access to countries around the world to investigate and denounce abusive practices?"

Marks concludes that in the 50 years since the un adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights "all countries have instituted embryonic human rights awareness, but compliance is the exception rather than the rule. The challenge before us is to bridge the gap between word and deed." Sustained by an unwavering moral imperative that lit a beacon for him in his youth, the new director of the FXB Center eagerly accepts the challenge.