Denis Mukwege

Facts

Denis Mukwege
The Nobel Peace Prize 2018

Born: 1 March 1955, Bukavu, Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Prize motivation: "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict."

Prize share: 1/2

Life

Denis Mukwege was born in Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His father was a Pentecostal minister. Mukwege received the opportunity to study medicine in Bujumbura at the University of Burundi and graduated with a medical degree in 1983. To help women injured during childbirth, he continued his education in gynecology at the University of Angers in France. In 1999 he founded Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, where thousands of victims of sexual violence during armed conflicts have been treated. Although he has been a target of attempted murder, he is still active there.

Work

Sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict constitutes both a war crime and a threat to peace and security. As a surgeon Denis Mukwege has helped thousands of victims of sexual violence in armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both on a national and an international level he has repeatedly condemned impunity for mass rape and criticized the Congolese government and other countries for not doing enough to stop the use of sexual violence against women as a strategy and weapon of war.