Médecins Sans Frontières

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, is an international medical humanitarian organization that provides independent emergency care during crises and advocates publicly about the conditions it witnesses.

Emergency medicine: The medical specialty focused on evaluating and treating acute illness and injury. MSF teams provide urgent care where routine health services are overwhelmed or unavailable.
Biafran War: A 1967–1970 conflict in which the secessionist state of Biafra fought Nigeria. French doctors’ experience of the Biafran war helped inspire MSF’s creation.
Medical neutrality: The principle that medical care should be provided without discrimination and protected from attack or interference. MSF invokes medical neutrality to protect patients, facilities, and care teams during conflict.
Témoignage: The humanitarian practice of publicly bearing witness to suffering and abuses encountered in the field. MSF uses testimony to draw attention to crises, while weighing its effects on access and safety.
International Committee of the Red Cross: An impartial organization mandated to protect and assist people affected by armed conflict and other violence. The ICRC generally emphasizes confidential dialogue, while MSF may publicly testify about crises.
Humanitarian response: Coordinated action to protect and assist people affected by crises. MSF medical programs operate within wider emergency responses, while maintaining organizational independence.
French Red Cross: The French national society of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Some doctors who founded MSF had served with the French Red Cross in Biafra.
Humanitarian principles: The principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence guiding humanitarian action. These principles frame MSF’s decisions about whom to assist and how to preserve operational independence.
Humanitarian intervention: Action intended to protect people in another state, sometimes involving coercive political or military means. MSF’s medical relief and advocacy differ from interventions that use state power or force.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: A federation coordinating and supporting national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies worldwide. The federation connects national societies; MSF is an independent medical humanitarian movement.

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