Nobel Peace Prize ceremony: Murad-Mukwege dedicate award to rape victims
Dr Denis Mukwege & Nadia Murad were awarded for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
By PTI |
Agencies
Nadia Murad (L) and Denis Mukwege
OSLO: Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and Yazidi activist Nadia Murad, an IS sex slave survivor, were presented with the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday, as they challenged the world to combat rape as a weapon of war.
Mukwege, dubbed "Doctor Miracle" for his work helping victims of sexual violence, and Murad, who has turned her experience into powerful advocacy for her Yazidi people, will receive the prize at a ceremony in Oslo.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee in October said the prize was "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict".
The laureates, who have dedicated their award to rape victims across the world, have said they hope the Nobel will raise awareness of sexual violence and make it harder for the world to ignore it.
"We cannot say that we didn't act because we didn't know. Now everyone knows. And I think now the international community has a responsibility to act," Mukwege told reporters at a news conference on Sunday.
Nadia Murad, Arthur Ashkin, Gregory Winter: Meet This Year's Nobel Laureates
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Swedish chemist, engineer and philanthropist Alfred Bernhard Nobel believed people can improve the society with knowledge, science and humanism.
Nobel Prize, part of the scientist's will, has been in existence since 1895. The award is presented for exceptional work in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature, peace and economic sciences.
After a #MeToo scandal, this year's Literature Prize was scrapped for the first time in 70 years.
Here's a look at the Nobel laureates of 2018.
Swedish chemist, engineer and philanthropist Alfred Bernhard Nobel believed people can improve the society with knowledge, science and humanism.
Nobel Prize, part of the scientist's will, has be..
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The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded this year's Peace Prize to a gynaecologist Denis Mukwege (L) and the Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad. The duo were presented with the award for their efforts to end use of sexual abuse as a war and armed conflict weapon.
Mukwege was lauded for devoting his life to treat victims of sexual violence in Congo.
The Nobel committee said in a statement that Murad is one of an estimated 3,000 Yazidi girls and women who were victims of rape and other abuses by the Islamic State army in Iraq.
(Image: The Nobel Prize/Twitter)
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded this year's Peace Prize to a gynaecologist Denis Mukwege (L) and the Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad. The duo were presented with the award for th..
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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Gregory Winter (L), Frances Arnold (C) and George Smith.
Arnold received the prize for 'directing evolution of enzymes'. Her work supported the environment-friendly manufacture of chemicals. This also included drugs used in production of renewable fuels.
Winter and Smith shared the other half of the prize for their work with drugs. While Smith developed a new way for evolving proteins, Winter figured out the path for evolving antibodies. The production of these new drugs were deemed effective for curing metastatic cancer and counteracting autoimmune diseases.
The first drug based on their work was used for rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Gregory Winter (L), Frances Arnold (C) and George Smith.
Arnold received the prize for 'directing evolution of enzymes'. Her work supported the enviro..
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The Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to three scientists - Arthur Ashkin (L), Donna Strickland (C) and Gérard Mourou - for creating the ‘tools made of light’.
Ashkin, 96, is oldest scientist ever to receive the Nobel Prize. He was awarded for creating ‘optical tweezers’. It is more of a technology than a physical instrument. These tweezers are used for isolating tiny particles such as individual atoms, biological cells and DNA strands.
Mourou and Strickland shared the other half of the prize for developing an intense laser pulse which can be used in scientific and medical applications such as eye surgeries.
The Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to three scientists - Arthur Ashkin (L), Donna Strickland (C) and Gérard Mourou - for creating the ‘tools made of light’.
Ashkin, 96, is oldest scientist ..
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James P Allison (L) and Tusuku Honjo bagged the Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine. The two immunologists were awarded for their therapeutic approach to cancer treatment. They showed how our immune system can be engaged in fighting tumour cells.
Allison and Honjo's research revealed how different strategies for inhibiting brakes on the immune system can help with cancer treatment.
James P Allison (L) and Tusuku Honjo bagged the Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine. The two immunologists were awarded for their therapeutic approach to cancer treatment. They showed how our im..
The prize was not a "victory", but could be seen "as the start of a new struggle, a new struggle against this type of evil", he added.
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The surgeon has spent 20 years treating the wounds and emotional trauma inflicted on women in the DR Congo's war-torn east.
"What we see during armed conflicts is that women's bodies become battlefields and this cannot be acceptable," he said.
Fellow laureate Murad has become a tireless campaigner for the rights of Yazidis since surviving the horrors of captivity under the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria where they targeted her Kurdish-speaking community.
Captured in 2014, she suffered forced marriage, beatings and gang-rape before she was able to escape.
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Nadia Murad (L) and Denis Mukwege She said the Nobel was "a sign" for the thousands of women still held by jihadists.
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"This prize, one prize cannot remove all the violence and all the attacks on pregnant women, on children, on women and give them justice," Murad said on Sunday.
But she said she hoped it would "open doors so that we can approach more governments", to bring the perpetrators to court and "so that we can find a solution and actually stop what is happening".
The co-laureates have come to represent the struggle against a global scourge that goes well beyond any single conflict.
"Each of them in their own way has helped to give greater visibility to war-time sexual violence, so that the perpetrators can be held accountable for their actions," said Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen, when the award was announced in October.
Mukwege has treated tens of thousands of victims -- women, children and even babies just a few months old -- at Panzi hospital which he founded in 1999 in DR Congo's South Kivu province.
Dr Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad (R) Murad, now UN ambassador for victims of human trafficking, was among thousands of Yazidi women and girls who were abducted, raped and brutalised by jihadists during their assault in 2014.
Older women and men faced summary execution during the IS assault, which the United Nations has described as a possible genocide. Murad's mother and six of her brothers were killed.
A UN team authorised to investigate the massacre of the Yazidi minority is due to finally start fieldwork in Iraq next year.
Murad said "steps towards justice" had given her hope.
But she stressed that "not a single ISIS terrorist" has appeared in court, adding "this injustice will continue in this world if it is not dealt with now".
The choice to highlight campaigns against sexual violence comes as a rape scandal has shredded the reputation of the Swedish Academy and led to the postponement of this year's Nobel Literature Prize to 2019.
A Stockholm court on December 3 found the 72-year-old husband of a Swedish Academy member guilty on appeal of two counts of rape, jailing him for two-and-a-half years.
The Nobel Peace Prize -- a gold medal, diploma and nine million Swedish Krona (880,000 euros, a million dollars) -- will be officially presented in a ceremony in Oslo City Hall on Monday.
Nobel Prize In Literature Cancelled After Sexual Assault Scandal, Other Times It Was Rocked By A Controversy
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This year’s Nobel in Literature was cancelled after Jean-Claude Arnault, a French photographer and the husband of a member of the Swedish Academy, was convicted of rape.
A look at other times a scandal rocked the coveted award.
(In Pic: Jean-Claude Arnault on the left, and the seal of the Nobel Prize on the right.)
This year’s Nobel in Literature was cancelled after Jean-Claude Arnault, a French photographer and the husband of a member of the Swedish Academy, was convicted of rape. A look at other times a scand..
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One of the more controversial winners of the Nobel Peace Prize was the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s chairman, Yasser Arafat.
Arafat was awarded the prize in 1994, along with then Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and then foreign minister Shimon Peres for their work on the Oslo Accords.
However, some critics called Arafat a terrorist who promoted violence.
The Oslo Accords were never fully realised due to allegations of corruption against Arafat and his alleged aversion to compromise.
One of the more controversial winners of the Nobel Peace Prize was the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s chairman, Yasser Arafat. Arafat was awarded the prize in 1994, along with then Israeli pri..
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Cordell Hull received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his role in establishing the United Nations.
Six years prior to this, Hull was Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of State. During the SS St Louis crisis, he advised the president against giving asylum to 950 Jewish refugees who had set sail for America.
When Roosevelt seemed inclined to help, Hull, along with other Southern Democrats, threatened to withdraw support in the upcoming re-election.
On June 4, 1939, the ship was denied entry and was forced to return to Europe, where over a quarter of the passengers died in the Holocaust.
Cordell Hull received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his role in establishing the United Nations. Six years prior to this, Hull was Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of State. During the SS St Louis ..
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Wangari Maathai became the first black woman and first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She won the prize for her “contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace”.
Around the time, Maathai made some controversial remarks about AIDS being created by Western scientists to depopulate Africa.
In a 2004 interview, she said, “I am sure people know where it came from. And I’m quite sure it did not come from the monkeys.”
She issued a follow-up statement clarifying her stand and called such views wicked and destructive.
Wangari Maathai became the first black woman and first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She won the prize for her “contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace”...
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Famously portrayed by Russell Crowe in 'A Beautiful Mind', John Forbes Nash’s contributions to the world of economics, specifically his work on game theory which he worked on as a graduate student at Princeton, earned him the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994.
However, rumours about his alleged battle with schizophrenia and anti-Semitism made him a controversial recipient.
Things came to such a point that the selection process was changed, and it was determined that the selection committee would serve for three years instead of indefinitely.
Famously portrayed by Russell Crowe in 'A Beautiful Mind', John Forbes Nash’s contributions to the world of economics, specifically his work on game theory which he worked on as a graduate student at..
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Harald zur Hansen received the Nobel in Physiology or Medicine in 2008 for his work in determining the role of papilloma viruses (HPV) in causing cervical cancer.
But Hansen’s moment of glory turned controversial when it came to be known that Bo Angelin, a member of the Nobel Assembly, was also a board member of AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company that had a large stake in two HPV vaccines.
The connection turned more controversial when it was found that AstraZeneca was sponsoring the Nobel website.
Harald zur Hansen received the Nobel in Physiology or Medicine in 2008 for his work in determining the role of papilloma viruses (HPV) in causing cervical cancer. But Hansen’s moment of glory turned ..
