Mukwege, Murad receive 2018 Nobel Peace Prize

Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege and Iraq's Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad received the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize on Monday at the award ceremony here in Norway, for "their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict."

At the ceremony held at the Oslo City Hall, Mukwege, 63, and Murad, 25, received medals and diplomas of the award.

The two laureates "have made significant contributions to combating this type of war crime by focusing attention on the suffering inflicted on women in Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and everywhere else in the world where sexual violence is used as a weapon," said Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

"The war waged on women through the use of sexual violence has been a hidden war," she said, adding "When the time has come for peace negotiations and transitional justice, these crimes have rarely been on the agenda."

In their Nobel lectures, both Murad and Mukwege narrated their experiences in their war-torn countries and urged the international community to help the victims of sexual violence in wars and armed conflicts.

Mukwege has 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.

Murad, a survivor of sexual slavery by the Islamic State in Iraq, "has shown uncommon courage in recounting her own sufferings and speaking up on behalf of other victims," the committee said.