In more than 70 countries, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations.
We set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to push for access to, and the development of, life-saving and life-prolonging medicines, diagnostic tests and vaccines for people in our programmes and beyond.
Based in Paris, CRASH conducts and directs studies and analysis of MSF actions. They participate in internal training sessions and assessment missions in the field.
Based in Geneva, UREPH (or Research Unit) aims to improve the way MSF projects are implemented in the field and to participate in critical thinking on humanitarian and medical action.
Based in Brussels, MSF Analysis intends to stimulate reflection and debate on humanitarian topics organised around the themes of migration, refugees, aid access, health policy and the environment in which aid operates.
This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.
This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux, France, provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.
This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases, tests, and stores equipment including vehicles, communications material, power supplies, water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements.
SAMU provides strategic, clinical and implementation support to various MSF projects with medical activities related to HIV and TB. This medical unit is based in Cape Town, South Africa.
BRAMU specialises in neglected tropical diseases, such as dengue and Chagas, and other infectious diseases. This medical unit is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Our medical guidelines are based on scientific data collected from MSF’s experiences, the World Health Organization (WHO), other renowned international medical institutions, and medical and scientific journals.
Providing epidemiological expertise to underpin our operations, conducting research and training to support our goal of providing medical aid in areas where people are affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or excluded from health care.
Evaluation Units have been established in Vienna, Stockholm, and Paris, assessing the potential and limitations of medical humanitarian action, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of our medical humanitarian work.
MSF works with LGBTQI+ populations in many settings over the last 25-30 years. LGBTQI+ people face healthcare disparities with limited access to care and higher disease rates than the general population.
The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training, and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection.
The MSF Paediatric Days is an event for paediatric field staff, policy makers and academia to exchange ideas, align efforts, inspire and share frontline research to advance urgent paediatric issues of direct concern for the humanitarian field.
The MSF Foundation aims to create a fertile arena for logistics and medical knowledge-sharing to meet the needs of MSF and the humanitarian sector as a whole.
A collaborative, patients’ needs-driven, non-profit drug research and development organisation that is developing new treatments for neglected diseases, founded in 2003 by seven organisations from around the world.
Le 14 décembre 1995, la signature des accords de paix de Dayton mettait fin à la guerre en ex-Yougoslavie. 20 ans après, MSF révèle quelles ont été les contraintes, questionnements et dilemmes de ses prises de parole publiques dans le cadre d’un conflit marqué par l’épuration ethnique, les crimes contre l’humanité, les attaques répétées contre l’action humanitaire.
MSF dénonça les distributions massives d’aide humanitaire comme un « alibi humanitaire » mis en avant par la communauté internationale afin de masquer son absence de volonté de prendre des mesures politiques et militaires pour mettre fin à la guerre. Certains de ses responsables appelèrent même à une intervention armée contre les batteries bosno-serbes qui bombardaient Sarajevo.
En Décembre 1992, MSF publia un rapport décrivant la politique de nettoyage ethnique menée par les Bosno-serbes. Elle dénonça les entraves, posées par ces derniers, à l’accès aux enclaves musulmanes de Gorazde et Srebrenica. En 1994 et 1995, lors des attaques contre ces mêmes enclaves, pourtant déclarées zones de sécurité par l’ONU, elle donna l’alerte et dénonça le manque de protection de leurs populations.
En août 1995, MSF dénonça le manque d’accès aux réfugiés serbes et à partir de 2000 elle plaida pour l’établissement de commissions parlementaires d’enquêtes sur les responsabilités politiques et militaires des Etats impliqués dans les événements de Srebrenica.
Dilemmes et questionnements:
Jusqu’à quel point peut-on risquer la vie du personnel MSF afin de pouvoir intervenir au cœur d’un conflit ?
Doit-on dénoncer les entraves posées à l’accès aux populations, au risque de ne plus avoir du tout accès a ces mêmes populations ?
Doit-on dénoncer le fait que les responsables politiques présentent l’aide humanitaire comme l’unique solution à un conflit et appeler au recours à la force, une action qui entraine la perte de vies humaines ?
