Two fighting sexual violence share the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize
The DRC’s Denis Mukwege and Iraq’s Nadia Murad are joint winners of this year’s peace prize; Mukwege dedicates his award to women wounded in wars and who have survived rape
Oslo — Denis Mukwege, a gynaecologist treating victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Nadia Murad, a Yazidi human rights activist and survivor of sexual slavery by Islamic State (IS) in Iraq, won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it had awarded them the prize for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. “Both laureates have made a crucial contribution to focusing attention on, and combating, such war crimes,” it said in its citation. Mukwege leads the Panzi Hospital in the eastern city of Bukavu. Opened in 1999, the clinic treats thousands of women each year, many of them requiring surgery from sexual violence. Murad is an advocate for the Yazidi minority in Iraq and for refugee and women's rights in general. She was enslaved and raped by IS fighters in Mosul in 2014. The prize, worth $1m, will be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist...
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