• Assassination Attempt on Dr. Mukwege , Dr. Mukwege Fights Back
• Combating Rape as tool of War

Denis Mukwege (born 1 March 1955) is a Congolese gynecologist and Pentecostal pastor. He founded and works in Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, where he specializes in the treatment of women who have been raped by armed rebels.

In 2018, Mukwege and Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict".

Mukwege has treated thousands of women who were victims of rape since the Second Congo War, some of them more than once, performing up to ten operations a day during his 17-hour working days. According to The Globe and Mail, Mukwege is "likely the world's leading expert on repairing injuries of rape". In 2013, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "his courageous work healing women survivors of war-time sexual violence and speaking up about its root causes."

Mukwege was the third of nine children born to a Pentecostal minister and his wife. He studied medicine because he wanted to heal the sick that his father prayed for, working at first in a rural hospital, then traveling to France to study gynecology, after seeing the complications of childbirth experienced by women in the Congo who had no access to specialist healthcare.

UN speech and attack

In September 2012, Mukwege made a strong speech condemning impunity for mass rape in the DRC, criticizing both president Joseph Kabila and the Rwandan government's role in mass rapes in Eastern Congo. On October 25, 2012, four gunmen attacked Mukwege's home, killing his guard. They fired at Mukwege as well, who avoided the bullets by throwing himself to the ground. After the assassination attempt, Mukwege fled to Brussels and the Panzi unit reported that the absence has had an “overwhelming effect” on daily operations at the unit.

Recognition

Awards

• UN Human Rights prize (New York, 2008)
• Olof Palme Prize (Sweden, 2008)
• African of the Year (Nigeria, 2009), awarded by Daily Trust
• Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur Française (Kinshasa, 2009)
• Van Heuven Goedhart-Award (2010) from the Netherlands Refugee Foundation (Stichting Vluchteling)
• The Wallenberg Medal, University of Michigan (2010)
• King Baudouin International Development Prize (Brussels, 2011)
• Clinton Global Citizen Award for Leadership in Civil Society (New York, 2011)
• The 2011 Deutscher Medienpreis (German Media Award) (Baden Baden, Germany, 2012)
• Officier de la Légion d'Honneur Française (Panzi, 2013)
• Civil Courage Prize (October 2013)
• Human Rights First Award (2013)
• Right Livelihood Award (2013) "Prize for Conflict Prevention" by the Fondation Chirac (Paris, 2013)
• Hillary Clinton Award (Washington, DC, 2014) for Advancing Women in Peace and Security
• Inamori Ethics Prize from the Case Western Reserve University Inamori Center for Ethics and Excellence (2014)
• Solidarity Prize received from Médecins du Monde and the Saint-Pierre University Hospital (Brussels, 2014)
• Sakharov Prize for the Freedom of Thought, from the European Parliament (Strasbourg, 2014)
• Gulbenkian Prize (Lisbon, 2015)
• Women for Women International "Champion for Peace Award" (New York, 2015)
• Prix Héros pour l'Afrique (Hero for Africa) (Brussels, 2016)
• University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Renfield Foundation Award for Global Women's Health (Philadelphia, 2016)
• Fortune Magazine 35th World Greatest Leader of 2016
• Four Freedoms Award Laureate for the Freedom From Want, by the Roosevelt Institute in New York and Franklin D. Roosevelt Stichting (Middelburg, Netherlands, 2016)
• Scandinavian Human Dignity Award Laureate, by the Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers & Committee (Stockholm, 2016)
• Seoul Peace Prize (Seoul, Korea, 2016)
• Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People (2016)
• Nobel Peace Prize, with Nadia Murad (2018)

Honorary degrees

• Honorary Doctorate by the faculty of medicine at Umeå University (Sweden, 2010)
• Honorary degree from the University of Louvain (Belgium, 2014)
• Honorary degree as Doctor of Science Harvard University (Boston, 2015)
• Honorary Degree of Doctor of Medicine, University of Edinburgh (Scotland, 2017)
• Honorary Degree of Doctor of Medicine, Université d'Angers, (France, 2018)
• Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Liège (Belgium, 2018)
• Honorary degree from Pennsylvania State University (Philadelphia, United States, 2019)
• Honorary degree from New University of Lisbon (Portugal, 2019)
• Honorary degree from Université de Montréal (Montréal, Canada, 2019)