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A SERVICE OF OHIO'S PUBLIC BROADCASTING STATIONS
A SERVICE OF OHIO'S PUBLIC BROADCASTING STATIONS
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In this personal memoir, Orbinski recounts the political journey he has taken over the last 20 years as a humanitarian doctor, as a citizen, and as a man. He believes humanitarianism is not separate from politics, but in relation to it, and is a challenge to political choices that too often kill or allow others to be killed.
A medical doctor with extensive field experience with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Orbinski was elected international president of the organization from 1998 to 2001, and launched its global Access to Essential Medicines Campaign in 1999. In 1999, he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to MSF for its pioneering approach to medical humanitarianism, and most especially, its commitment to witnessing. Orbinski's first MSF mission was in Peru in 1992, and he has represented MSF in numerous humanitarian emergencies and on critical humanitarian issues in the Sudan, Kosovo, and numerous other countries, at the UN Security Council, and in many national parliaments.
In 2004, Orbinski left MSF to found Dignitas International, an organization committed to community-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world. He was a founding board member of the Global Alliance for Tuberculosis Drug Development and is an advisory board member of Engineers Without Borders. He is a founding board member of the Steven Lewis Foundation, is board chair of War Child Canada, and a board member of Canadian Doctors for Medicare.
This Forum is being held in partnership with the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland.
December 5, 2008