Doctor, former sex slave share Nobel Peace Prize
OSLO: Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and Yazidi campaigner Nadia Murad won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize yesterday for their work in fighting sexual violence in conflicts around the world.
The pair won the award “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict”, Nobel committee chairman Berit ReissAndersen said in unveiling the winners here.
“A more peaceful world can only be achieved if women and their fundamental rights and security are recognised and protected in war,” she said.
One a doctor, the other a former Islamic State sex slave, both have come to represent the struggle against a global scourge, which goes well beyond any single conflict, as the #MeToo movement has shown.
The prize was announced as #MeToo marks its first anniversary after a year, in which allegations of sexual abuse, rape and harassment have toppled dozens of powerful men. By recognising the pair’s work, the Nobel committee has placed a spotlight on the use of sexual violence in war as a global problem.
Dr Mukwege, 63, was recognised for two decades of work to help women recover from the trauma of sexual abuse and rape in the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Women, children and even babies just a few months old, Dr Mukwege has treated tens of thousands of victims of rape at Panzi hospital, which he founded in 1999 in South Kivu.
Known as “Doctor Miracle”, he is an outspoken critic of the abuse of women during war, who has described rape as “a weapon of mass destruction”.
Alongside Dr Mukwege, the committee honoured Murad, a 25-year-old Iraqi woman from the Yazidi community who, in 2014, was kidnapped by Islamic State militants and endured three months as a sex slave.
She was one of thousands of Yazidi women and girls who were abducted, raped and brutalised by jihadists during their assault on the Kurdish-speaking minority, which the United Nations has described as genocide.
After her escape, she quickly became a figurehead for efforts to protect the Yazidi community, and was named a UN ambassador for victims of human trafficking.
Both Dr Mukwege and Murad had “put their personal security at risk” by focusing attention on and combating such war crimes, Reiss-Andersen said.