Nadia Murad, a Yazidi human rights activist and survivor of sexual slavery by Islamic State (IS) terror group in Iraq, and Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist treating victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, have jointly won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize.
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.
Ms. Murad is an advocate for the Yazidi minority in Iraq and for refugee and women's rights in general. Aged 19, she was enslaved and raped by Islamic State fighters in Mosul in 2014.
She fled Iraq and spoke openly about the abuse she suffered – repeatedly gang-raped, tortured and beaten during the three months she was held.
Six of her brothers and mother were killed by the jihadists. She has since fought for the 3,000 Yazidis who remain missing.
With the help of an organization that assists Yazidis, she joined her sister in Germany, where she lives today.
Ms Murad was named a United Nations goodwill ambassador for survivors of human trafficking. and campaigned alongside human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to get the UN the body to recognize the crimes against the Yazidis as genocide.
She is the second-youngest recipient of the peace prize after Malala.
Mr. Mukwege, a gynecologist treating victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, leads the Panzi Hospital in the eastern city of Bukavu.
He has reportedly spent large parts of his adult life helping the victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo as most of the abuses have been committed in the context of a long-lasting civil war, according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
His work was the subject of an acclaimed 2015 film titled: The Man Who Mends Women.
A father to five children, the tireless 63-year-old is an outspoken critic of the abuse of women in war who has repeatedly accused the world of failing to act.
Mr. Mukwege had been repeatedly nominated for his work with gang rape victims from the conflicts that have ravaged his homeland.
