New York University

New York University

The Office of Public Affairs

Friday, Apr 18, 2008

N-419, 2007-08

MEDIA ADVISORY

“From Ethiopia to Chechnya: Reflections on Humanitarian Action,” a roundtable discussion sponsored by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), will take place on Thurs., May 15, 7 p.m. at New York University’s Kimmel Center for University Life, Eisner and Lubin Auditorium, 60 Washington Square South (at LaGuardia Place), 4th Floor. Subways: 6 (Astor Place); R, W (8th Street); A, B, C, D, E, F, V (West 4th Street).

The panel will look at several key crises at the end of the 20th century, examining how they have affected humanitarian activities and principles today: What did Ethiopia and North Korea teach us about addressing famine? How did interventions in Somalia, Sudan, Chechnya, and the Balkans change the way we think about security and delivering aid? How have humanitarian principles changed since their origins in the 19th century? Are they still suited to the 21st?

The roundtable will include: David Rieff, author of A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis; Dr. Rony Brauman, former president of MSF; and Thomas Keenan, an associate professor of comparative literature and director of the Human Rights Project at Bard College, who will moderate the discussion.

This event, co-sponsored by Bard College and NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge, is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit www.doctorswithoutborders.org or call 800.601.1466.

Reporters interested in attending the event should contact James Devitt, NYU’s Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6808 or james.devitt@nyu.edu.

This spring, MSF will publish From Ethiopia to Chechnya: Reflections on Humanitarian Action, 1988-1999, a collection of essays written by Francois Jean (1956-1999), who was research director at MSF in the 1990s. During his time at MSF, Jean wrote about the difficulties and challenges faced by humanitarian aid workers in a shifting political landscape.