Nobel Peace Prize shared by campaigners against using sexual violence as a weapon of war
Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege, who has treated thousands of rape victims, and Yazidi campaigner and former Islamic State sex slave Nadia Murad share the award
Denis Mukwege, a gynaecologist treating victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nadia Murad, a Yazidi human rights activist and survivor of sexual slavery by Islamic State in Iraq, won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
The pair won the award for their “efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war”, Norwegian Nobel Committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said in unveiling the winners in Oslo.
“A more peaceful world can only be achieved if women and their fundamental rights and security are recognised and protected in war,” she said.
Mukwege, 63, heads the Panzi Hospital in the eastern city of Bukavu.
Opened in 1999, the clinic receives thousands of women each year, many of them requiring surgery from sexual violence.