Alain Destexhe


Alain Destexhe is a Belgian liberal politician. He was a senator from 1995 to 2011, and remains a member of the Brussels Regional Parliament. Destexhe was a member of the liberal Mouvement Réformateur and represented Belgium in the World Economic Forum. He was awarded the Prize for Liberty by Nova Civitas in 2006. He was Secretary-General of Médecins Sans Frontières from 1991 to 1995, and President of the International Crisis Group from 1997 to October 1999.
In February 2019 Destexhe quit the MR due to a disagreement with the party's course. He created his own party, the Listes Destexhe, which is situated to the right of the MR. According to Destexhe, his list is modeled after the Flemish-nationalist N-VA but without the confederalism.

Early life

Alain Destexhe graduated in Medicine from the University of Liège. Later he graduated in International Affairs from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris.
After his medical studies, Destexhe became volunteer for Médecins Sans Frontières.
He took part to different missions on the ground, notably:
From 1989 to 1991, Destexhe was the medical assistant director of Pasteur Vaccins in charge of Asia and Latin America.
In 1993, he was appointed for two years as the first General Secretary of the international network of Médecins Sans Frontières. He was then confronted with many international crises: Bosnia, Iraq, Rwanda, Somalia.
From 1997 to 1999, Destexhe was President of the International Crisis Group.

Political career

Destexhe was elected a Senator in the 1995 elections, and re-elected in 1999. He was re-elected for the new Mouvement Réformateur in 2003 and 2007 due to support from the Francophone electoral college, but failed to win re-election in 2010. He was also elected to the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region in 2004, and re-elected.
During his time in the Senate, Destexhe also served as President of Parliamentarians for Global Action from 2005 to 2007. He is a member of the AWEPA Governing Council.
After the 2014 elections, Destexhe was reelected to the Senate. He also served as Vice-President of the Belgian delegation in the Inter-Parliamentary Union. In 2014 he was appointed as a rapporteur on the destruction and degradation of the tangible and intangible heritage of Belgium.
In addition to his role in the Senate, Destexhe has been serving as member of the Belgian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2014. As member of the Reformist Movement, he was vice-chairman of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group. Since 2016, he has been serving as chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights as well as of its Sub-Committee on Conflicts between Council of Europe Member States. He is also a member of the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe, the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy and the Sub-Committee on External Relations. Since 2017, he has been the Assembly’s rapporteur on Azerbaijan. As a rapporteur for Azerbaijan in PACE he was producing satisfactory statements for the official Baku and called openly to milder the criticism over the human rights situation in Azerbaijan.
He authored a report on recommendations for the Council of Europe’s co-operation with the International Criminal Court in 2016.
Desthexhe is also currently a Board Member of The Parliamentary Network on the World Bank & International Monetary Fund.
In March 2017, Desthexhe caused controversy when he joined Pedro Agramunt and Jordi Xuclà on a visit to Damascus amid the Syrian Civil War.

Corruption: Azerbaijani Laundromat

In the result of investigation by the world’s top media outlets that received the name “Azerbaijani Laundromat” Destexhe was proven to have connections with Azerbaijani caviar diplomacy and receiving financial means to promote Azerbaijani interests. Destexhe established European Academy for Elections Observations and during at least seven years released groundless positive reports on the elections in Azerbaijan.

Author

Destexhe has published a number of books, including one, translated into English, dealing with the Rwandan genocide. His book deals mainly with historical antecedents leading up to the mass killings in 1994 and who was to blame. Afterwards, his analyses of that era have been used in many parliamentary enquiries and investigation commissions. A 2004 exchange between Destexhe and Canadian general Roméo Dallaire, the military leader of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda, can be seen in the CBC documentary . Destexhe stated that Dallaire failed to protect his troops and cost the lives of ten Belgian Blue Helmet soldiers in UN service.
He is also the author of several articles on human rights, international relations, international justice and humanitarian assistance.

Books