Alain Destexhe

Alain Destexhe, born in Liège on June 19, 1958, is a Belgian MR politician. He has been the Secretary General of Médecins Sans Frontières, President of the International Crisis Group, of the Parliamentarians for Global Action and of the Network of Parliamentarians concerning the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Destexhe gained fame as a member of the Commission of Inquiry on the genocide in Rwanda.

Political Career

In 1995 he was elected Senator for the MR and then in 1999 he became the first Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. In 2003 he became Senator for the French Community where he excelled before he was again elected Senator in 2007. In 2009 he was elected as Member of the Brussels Parliament and the Parliament of the French Community.

Notable works

From 1985 to 1988, Destexhe was responsible for the shipments of Médecins Sans Frontières in Honduras, Guinea and Sudan. He worked among others:

• in Honduras, in a camp for refugees from El Salvador;
• in Guinea, after the death of the dictator Sékou Touré;
• in Guatemala, in zones between areas controlled by government forces and areas controlled by guerrilla forces;
• in Sudan, with refugees from Ethiopia; and
• in Djibouti.

From 1989 to 1991, he was Deputy Director General at Pasteur Vaccins (a subsidiary of the Institut Pasteur and the Institut Mérieux), in charge of Asia and Latin America.

In 1991 he became the first Secretary-General of Médecins Sans Frontières (international). He faced the wars in Bosnia, Iraq (First Gulf War), Rwanda (the 1994 genocide) and Somalia (famine).

From 1997 to 2000, Alain Destexhe was Ppresident of the International Crisis Group.

Education

Destexhe obtained a PhD in Medicine at the University of Liège (1983). He has additional degrees from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris (1987) and INSEAD in Fontainebleau, and a degree in medical expertise at UCL.

External Links and References

Official website