Monday, November 20 2017 16:14

ArmInfo.Aurora humanitarian initiative is pleased to announce that Bernard Kouchner,  one of the founders of Medecins Sans Frontieres, joined the Selection  Committee of the Aurora Prize. The Selection Committee, which  identifies the names of the finalists and laureate of the Aurora  Prize each year, includes humanitarian figures, human rights  activists and former heads of state, and is headed by its Academy  Award-winning actor, director and philanthropist George Clooney.

The world-famous politician and physician Bernard Kouchner is one of the  founders of the organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (1971), which  won the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1980, he also became a co-founder of  the "Doctors of the World" (Medecins du Monde). From 2007 to 2010,  Kouchner was Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, and previously  was Minister of Health of the country. He organized humanitarian  operations around the world, including in Somalia, El Salvador,  Lebanon, Syria, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Uruguay, Peru,  Guatemala, Honduras, Chad, Libya, Nigeria and beyond. Bernard  Kouchner also headed the mission of "Doctors without Borders",  providing medical assistance to the victims of the Spitak earthquake  in Armenia, which happened 29 years ago.

"We are very pleased that Bernard Kouchner joined the Selection  Committee of the Aurora Prize. He devoted most of his life to helping  developing countries, where a state of emergency was declared, and  applied the accumulated knowledge and skills, "Ruben Vardanyan,  co-founder of the Aurora humanitarian initiative, said. "Thanks to  Mr. Kouchner and his organization, the victims of the 1988 earthquake  in Armenia immediately received the necessary medical assistance. We  are grateful to Bernard Kouchner for his tireless efforts and are  convinced that his valuable experience will help us in considering  nominations for the Aurora Prize. "It is a great honor for me to  become a part of the Selection Committee of the Aurora Prize and to  join the initiative, which for such a short period has already  changed for the better thousands of lives," Bernard Kouchner said.  "During my career, I was fortunate to meet many heroes working in the  disaster zones, and I am encouraged by the opportunity to pay tribute  to such wonderful people, calling them the winners of the Aurora  Prize.  In addition to Bernard Kouchner, the Aurora Prize Selection  Commission includes Nobel Peace Prize winners Oscar Arias, Shirin  Ebadi and Laima Gbovi, former Irish President Mary Robinson, former  Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, human rights activist Hina Jilani,  director of the Institute for Global Innovation in Health Care  Imperial College London Lord Ara Darzi, former Australian Foreign  Minister and Honorary President of the International Crisis Group  Gareth Evans, President of the Carnegie Corporation in New York  Vartan Gregorian and laureate and Oscar, actor and philanthropist  George Clooney.  Aurora Prize, created on behalf of all survivors of  the Armenian Genocide and as a token of gratitude to their saviors,  is awarded for the third year already. For the prize "Aurora" - 2018,  750 applications from 115 countries were sent. On December 4, 2017,  the Selection Panel will hold a meeting in Berlin to review the  nominations received. Also in Berlin, the Humanitarian Initiative  "Aurora" will hold the first ever "Aurora" Dialogues outside Armenia  called "Millions in Motion: The Time of Development and Integration".  The conference will be held on December 4-5, 2017 thanks to the joint  efforts of the Aurora humanitarian initiative, the Mercator  Foundation, the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Global Perspectives  initiative. Speakers will be able to discuss the scale of the global  migration crisis and assess the role of various actors in the process  of making changes for the better. The names of the finalists of the  "Aurora" prize - 2018 will be announced in Armenia on April 24, 2018,  when the whole world will remember the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The  results of the third annual award will be summed up in Armenia on  June 10, 2018 at a special ceremony, during which the laureate will  receive $ 100,000 and the opportunity to give $ 1 million to the  organizations chosen by them.