Human rights and humanitarian action have always been the focus of my professional and political life and I keep trying to come up with efficient solutions in order to help the ones in need.
I am deeply convinced that new technologies are a great tool to help victims of traumatic crimes. In this perspective, I implemented several hotlines and procedures such as “Amber Alert” and “08VICTIMES” to help and inform victims in France. In this way, I am fighting every day to promote modernization of humanitarian aid.
Joining the French government in 2004 allowed me to coordinate humanitarian efforts resulted by the tsunami in South East Asia, I quicky realised that rescue procedures were not efficient, mainly due to a lack of coordination and communication between all the organizations involved.
For many years, I’ve been lobbying for the creation of an international humanitarian task force called Red Helmets and my governmental experience strenghtened this commitment.
The Red Helmets would be a complement to the UN peacekeeping force (Blue Helmets) and will gather firemen, medical staff, and security personnel. Gathered in one brigade, their aim would be to coordinate the NGOs’ efforts in times of industrial, epidemic and natural disasters.
On the field, the Red Helmets force will be supported by a reliable logistical network: within the first 24 of a crisis, helicopters, mobile hospitals and telecommunications would be deployed .
NGOs and governments have achieved amazing results in the past few years. However, a more coodinated approach would help them facilitate the rescue of victims. Who else, better than the UN, could help them in this process ?
This organization is currently sending thousands of peacekeepers in countries at war: therefore it should also equip forces to help rebuild countries hit by natural disasters.
I began lobbying for an international firemen brigade since more than ten years. This proposition was accepted by the French council of Ministers, Jacques Chirac and Kofi Annan.
Today, the Red Helmets project is being reviewed by the UN.
The EU is also considering the creation of a dedicated force to help coordinate humanitarian crises taking place in Europe.
I am hoping that these progresses will soon become a global initiative.
In order to make this happen, I created the Red Helmets Foundation, whose core mission is to mobilize key decision-makers worldwide to promote this project and push the UN to vote a resolution supporting the creation of Red Helmets.
Elie Wiesel (Nobel Peace Prize) as well Abdou Diouf (former president of Senegal and General Secretary of the International Organization of the French-speaking world), agreed to be the main sponsors of the Red Helmets Foundation and I am hoping that the number of Red Helmets supporters will keep increasing in the upcoming months.
Our foundation is currently elaborating innovative technological tools which will be used by the Red Helmets force in the future. In partnership with the CNES (French Spatial Agency) and Thales Alenia Space, we recently created the first humanitarian container of telecommunications and exchanges of information by satellites. Emergesat is a unique tool which allow rescue teams to share infomation efficiently and provide them with medical and water analysis tools.
The first Emergesat container is currently used in Chad, at the border of Sudan, in camps managed by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissionner for Refugees), to help the humanitarian workers in their daily work with Darfur Refugees.
Our daily work is not always easy and it takes a long time to be heard but we keep figthing for this dream in the name of solidarity, in the name of responsibility, in the name of brotherhood.
Together, we can make it happen.
