In 1999 ontvangt Artsen zonder Grenzen de Nobelprijs voor de Vrede. De prijs werd uitgereikt voor medisch en humanitaire werk. In de acceptatie speech van internationaal voorzitter James Orbinski, sprak hij zich uit tegen het geweld in Tsjetsjenië. Deze speech is vandaag nog steeds relevant.

We are not sure that words can always save lives. But we know that silence can certainly kill. Humanitarian action is to help people in situations of crisis. Our daily work is a struggle, and it is intensely medical, and it is intensely personal. It aims to build spaces of normalcy in the midst of what is profoundly abnormal. But we act not in a vacuum, and we speak not into the wind, but with a clear intent to assist, to provoke change, or to reveal injustice. Despite grand debates on world order, the act of humanitarianism comes down to one thing: individual human beings reaching out to those others who find themselves in the most difficult circumstances. And they reach out one bandage at a time, one suture at a time, one vaccination at a time. Humanitarian responsibility has no frontiers.