His grandfather, a doctor and member of the French Resistance during World War II had been imprisoned for two years at Buchenwald.

In 1989 he was cultural attaché in Brazil, and in 1993 he became a special adviser in strategic thinking on North-South relations to François Léotard, then Minister of Defence.

As a doctor, he is one of the pioneers of humanitarian movement "without borders," for which he has led numerous missions in eastern Africa and Latin America.

[2] In 2003, Rufin was commissioned by French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin to write an in-depth report on the upsurge of anti-Semitism in France.

Tubiana said that the focus on anti-Semitism created an "imbalance" in the approach to fighting all racism, and that if the recommendation became law, the umbrella group of the International Federation for Human Rights would be punished because it viewed Israel's treatment of Israeli Arabs as "discriminatory".