this issue
previous article in this issuenext article in this issue

Document Details :

Title: The Legitimacy of Humanitarian Actions and their Media Representation
Subtitle: The Case of France
Author(s): BOLTANSKI, Luc
Journal: Ethical Perspectives
Volume: 7    Issue: 1   Date: April 2000   
Pages: 3-16
DOI: 10.2143/EP.7.1.503788

Abstract :
The question of humanitarian action appeared in France in the public arena at the beginning of the 1990s, almost twenty years after the creation of `Médecins sans frontières' by Bernard Kouchner and Xavier Emmanuelli. The humanitarian debate in France developed in a political context marked by two essential features: on the one hand, the bureaucratization of humanitarian actions with its own secretary of state, an office occupied by Bernard Kouchner between 1988 and 1993 and, on the other hand, the war in ex-Yugoslavia, first in Croatia, then in Bosnia.

Download article