Doctors Without Borders Wins Nobel Peace Prize

The international medical-relief organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) was named today as the winner of the 1999 Nobel Peace Price.

The organization each year arranges for 2,000 medical professionals from around the world to volunteer to work in more than 80 countries. It depends heavily on private contributions and the help of volunteers — in large part because it says it wants to avoid being dependent on any government organization that could dictate its priorities.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised that independence when it announced the award. “In critical situations marked by violence and brutality, the humanitarian work of Doctors Without Borders enables the organization to create openings for contacts between the opposed parties,” the committee said. “At the same time, each fearless and self-sacrificing helper shows each victim a human face, stands for respect for that person’s dignity, and is a source of hope for peace and reconciliation.”

“By intervening so rapidly, Doctors Without Borders calls public attention to humanitarian catastrophes, and by pointing to the causes of such catastrophes, the organization helps to form bodies of public opinion opposed to violations and abuses of power.”

Médecins Sans Frontières was founded in the 1971 by a group of French doctors, many of whom worked in Biafra from 1968 to 1970. They said their aim was to rectify what they perceived as the shortcomings of the international aid system: that serious medical attention was too rarely available and that other relief groups too often got overly bogged down by legal and administrative obstacles.

The non-profit organization, which has its headquarters in Brussels, not only provides medical relief, but sees its role as an advocate for victims of political and natural disasters and is aggressive in calling press attention to their needs.

The Nobel Prize comes with a cash award of $960,000. In 1997, the Peace Prize went to another non-profit organization: the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and its founder Jody Williams. (The Chronicle, October 30, 1997.)

The full text of the Nobel announcement is available on the Nobel Foundation’s World-Wide Web site.