Doctors without Borders

Doctors Without Borders represents a 20th-century evolution of the humanitarian tradition started by the Red Cross. The organization's approach to disaster relief places advocacy and action for the vulnerable person at the center of its work. The formative story of Doctors Without Borders is somewhat parallel to that of the Red Cross, yet it has resulted in an organization that has challenged Red Cross principles. During the Biafran Civil War in Nigeria in 1968, a young French doctor named

Bernard Kouchner was working for the Red Cross, which was in Nigeria through its mandate under international law to protect the victims of armed conflict. Despite the sanction given to humanitarian organizations to assist, Kouchner observed their inability to help vulnerable people under the circumstances of the ...