Pair earn Nobel prize for campaigns to end use of rape as weapon of war

Yazidi activist and Congolese doctor share Peace Prize for work with, for women

In the midst of a global reckoning over sexual violence, a woman who was forced into sexual slavery by the Islamic State group and a Congolese gynecological surgeon were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their campaigns to end the use of mass rape as a weapon of war.

The award went to Nadia Murad, 25, who became the voice and face of women who survived sexual violence by the Islamic State, and to Dr. Denis Mukwege, 63, who has treated thousands of women in a country once called the rape capital of the world.

They have worked through grave risks to their own lives to help survivors and bring their stories to the world.

“We want to send out a message of awareness that women, who constitute half of the population in most communities, actually are used as a weapon of war, and that they need protection and that the perpetrators have to be prosecuted and held responsible for their actions,” Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said.

When the Islamic State overran her homeland in northern Iraq in 2014, Murad was abducted alongside thousands of other women and girls from the Yazidi minority, the group singled out for rape by the Islamic State. Murad’s advocacy helped to persuade the U.S. State Department to recognize the genocide of her people at the hands of the terrorist group.

Mukwege’s work, meanwhile, has been centred on a conflict in one of the most traumatized places on the planet: the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. In a bare hospital in the hills above Bukavu, where for years there was little electricity or enough anesthetic, he performed surgery on countless women and campaigned relentlessly to bring attention to their plight.

On Friday, Mukwege told reporters: “This Nobel Prize reflects the recognition of suffering and the lack of a just reparation for women victims of rape and sexual violence in all countries of the world and on all continents.”

He dedicated his prize to “women of all countries bruised by conflict and facing everyday violence.”

In a statement, Murad congratulated Mukwege and said she was “incredibly honoured and humbled.” She said she shared the award “with Yazidis, Iraqis, Kurds, other persecuted minorities and all of the countless victims of sexual violence around the world.”

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Dr. Denis Mukwege, centre, celebrates with his staff after learning he has been awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, at the Panzi hospital in Bukavu, eastern Congo, on Friday. He shares the award with Nadia Murad, an Iraqi Yazidi woman. Mukwege, 63, founded the hospital and has treated thousands of women, many of whom were victims of gang rape.

MARK WILSON Nadia Murad is an Iraqi Yazidi who campaigned to free the Yazidi people after being raped and tortured by the Islamic State. She shares the Nobel Peace Prize award with Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist.