tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/denis-mukwege-7512/articlesDenis Mukwege – The Conversation2023-12-06T13:44:46Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2170182023-12-06T13:44:46Z2023-12-06T13:44:46ZDRC elections: three factors that have shaped Tshisekedi’s bumpy first term as president<p>Africa’s second-largest country by land mass, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2023/08/27/dr-congos-president-felix-tshisekedi-to-seek-re-election/">scheduled to go to the polls on 20 December 2023</a>. President Felix Tshisekedi will be seeking re-election. However, his first tenure has been decidedly mixed. </p>
<p>Tshisekedi’s first term has been defined by three major factors: questions over the legitimacy of his 2019 election victory, violence in eastern DRC and the state of the country’s economy.</p>
<p>I have <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/history/people//academic-staff/profiles/loffmanreuben.html">researched extensively and taught</a> on contemporary Congolese politics for 15 years. In my view, while Tshisekedi has had some successes, including the DRC’s joining of the East African Community and a modest upturn in economic growth since the pandemic, much work remains to improve the lives of Congolese citizens.</p>
<h2>Legitimacy questions haunt the presidency</h2>
<p>Tshisekedi has been president since January 2019 after an election that one of his then opponents, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/19/drc-opposition-candidate-threatens-to-boycott-december-vote">Martin Fayulu</a>, claimed was stolen. These claims were supported by a <a href="https://cic.nyu.edu/resources/who-really-won-the-congolese-elections/">Congo Research Group</a> and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2b97f6e6-189d-11e9-b93e-f4351a53f1c3">Financial Times</a> analysis of voting data that found Fayulu had won the election. The courts, however, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/20/drc-court-confirms-felix-tshisekedi-winner-of-presidential-election">upheld</a> Tshisekedi’s win.</p>
<p>The upcoming election is also mired in controversy. DRC’s electoral commission has promised a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/congo-election-chief-promises-rebrand-amid-concerns-over-december-vote-2023-10-17/">rebrand</a> in an effort to shake off the irregularities of the 2018 poll. It has registered <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/congo-registers-around-439-million-voters-december-general-election-2023-05-22/">nearly 44 million voters</a> in the country of 102 million people. </p>
<p>However, Fayulu, as well as the United States, the European Union and other international election observers <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/19/drc-opposition-candidate-threatens-to-boycott-december-vote">have raised doubts about the accuracy of voter records</a>. Fayulu has threatened to boycott the 2023 elections if the voter lists are not redone and audited.</p>
<p>The electoral commission cleared <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/twenty-four-candidates-sign-up-congolese-presidential-race-december-2023-10-08/">24 candidates</a> to run for president. They include 2018 presidential contender Moïse Katumbi, Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege and Augustin Ponyo, a former prime minister. The campaign period has officially began and already there are plans to <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/tshisekedi-katumbi-race-takes-shape-in-drc-presidency-poll-4451764">rally opposition support</a> behind Katumbi.</p>
<p>Given the controversies involved in this election, as well as in his assumption of office in 2019, Tshisekedi will need to work hard both to win the upcoming poll and do so in a way that citizens believe to be credible.</p>
<h2>Violence in eastern DRC</h2>
<p>While eastern DRC was unstable <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691194080/the-war-that-doesnt-say-its-name">before</a> Tshisekedi came into power, the <a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-condemns-latest-attack-eastern-dr-congo-act-horrific-brutality#:%7E:text=Eastern%20DRC%20has%20been%20plagued,among%20the%20top%20three%20globally.">escalation of violence since 2022</a> has made it a defining feature of his presidency.</p>
<p>At least <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/what-is-driving-violence-eastern-congo-2023-01-31/">120 armed groups are active in the region</a>. One of the most significant of these armed groups is the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/what-is-driving-violence-eastern-congo-2023-01-31/">M23</a>. In March 2023, M23 violence led to the displacement of about 500,000 people. In recent weeks, it has broken a <a href="https://www.voaafrica.com/a/renewed-fighting-breaks-truce-in-congo/7321665.html">months-long truce</a> and resumed attacks in eastern DRC. </p>
<p><a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/monusco">International</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/peace-in-the-drc-east-africa-has-deployed-troops-to-combat-m23-rebels-whos-who-in-the-regional-force-204036">regional</a> peacekeepers have been trying to address the conflict in eastern DRC. Yet, their presence points to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-un-is-under-attack-in-eastern-congo-but-drc-elites-are-also-to-blame-for-the-violence-187861">failure</a> of the Congolese government to deal with the violence on its own.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/drc-is-president-tshisekedis-state-of-siege-a-cover-up/a-57426558">state of siege</a> announced by Tshisekedi in the eastern region’s provinces of North Kivu and Ituri in 2021 <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/05/drc-authorities-must-end-state-of-siege/">worsened</a> the human rights situation there. The military took over key state posts from civilian leaders. This despite the Congolese army being <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo">linked to violence</a> in the region. </p>
<p>It was meant to last one month, butt the siege was extended many times by Tshisekedi’s government. Two years on, there has been <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/05/drc-authorities-must-end-state-of-siege/">no “meaningful public debate” about it</a>. In the run-up to the December elections, Tshisekedi announced he would “<a href="https://www.trtafrika.com/africa/dr-congo-to-end-state-of-siege-in-ituri-north-kivu-15377066">gradually ease</a>” the siege. Such interventions have made it difficult for Congolese people to believe that Tshisekedi’s policies have resulted in a more peaceful Congo.</p>
<h2>Economic growth and prospects</h2>
<p>Tshisekedi has registered some success in managing the Congolese economy. The country’s GDP growth rate went down during the pandemic but has made a modest recovery. It <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/COD/democratic-republic-of-congo/gdp-growth-rate#:%7E:text=Democratic%20Republic%20of%20Congo%20gdp%20growth%20rate%20for%202022%20was,a%202.65%25%20decline%20from%202019.">increased to 8.92% in 2022 from 6.20% in 2021</a>, with the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/drc/overview">mining industry</a> being a major driver. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/drc-is-set-to-become-7th-member-of-the-east-africa-trading-bloc-whats-in-it-for-everyone-179320">In 2022</a>, the DRC joined the East African Community as its seventh member. Tshisekedi’s hope was that this move would <a href="https://www.eac.int/press-releases/2402-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-joins-eac-as-its-7th-member">promote trading relationships and reduce tensions with the DRC’s neighbours</a>. Entry gives the DRC access to a market of <a href="https://www.eac.int/gender/75-sector/investment-promotion-private-sector-development/162-184-706-market-size-access-trade-policies#:%7E:text=The%20internal%20EAC%20market%20has,population%20of%20over%20460%20million.">146 million consumers</a> and means it can start importing <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-60901159">more goods from its east African neighbours</a>. </p>
<p>The DRC also signed a mining deal with <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/18/uae-signs-deal-to-develop-mines-in-eastern-dr-congo">the United Arab Emirates in July 2023</a>. The deal is worth US$1.9 billion and involves developing at least four mines in Congo’s northeast region. Such deals are important because <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/drc/overview">mining is the main driver of economic growth in the DRC</a>.</p>
<p>Tshisekedi also <a href="https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/markets/this-dollar850-million-investment-aims-to-fast-track-congos-copper-exports/y86zk27">broke ground on a new road</a> cutting through Zambia to Tanzania to speed up the movement of Congolese exports. The DRC is landlocked – the new road will cut about 240km from the journey between some of the country’s copper and cobalt mines, and a port in Tanzania. </p>
<p>But Tshisekedi’s economic record isn’t all positive.</p>
<p>The upcoming election is causing financial problems for the state. It’s expected to cost about <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/congo-election-chief-promises-rebrand-amid-concerns-over-december-vote-2023-10-17/">US$1.1 billion</a>. <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/drc/overview">The World Bank predicts</a> that the election will widen the country’s fiscal deficit in 2023 to -1.3% of GDP. Further, foreign exchange pressures caused by spending on security and pre-election processes have seen the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-12/congo-struggles-to-steady-franc-amid-conflict-election-spending?leadSource=uverify%20wall">Congolese franc slide 20% against the dollar</a>.</p>
<p>Tshisekedi’s government is looking to increase revenues from a much anticipated re-negotiation of a China-DRC mining deal. The president is under pressure to get more from the deal, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/whether-drc-china-mining-deal-will-be-restructured-remains-uncertain-/7118892.html">which is worth US$6.2 billion</a>. Tshisekedi wants a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/congo-hike-stake-copper-cobalt-venture-with-china-2023-05-24/">70% stake</a> in the Chinese-Congolese firm Sicomines, up from the original 32%. </p>
<p>The Chinese deal is one way in which Tshisekedi’s economic achievements could have impacted the lives of Congolese people given the hoped-for investment in schools, roads and hospitals. However, its unclear how many of these infrastructure projects have been implemented. At the same time, the country’s mining industry has been plagued by allegations of <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/window-opportunity-build-critical-mineral-security-africa#:%7E:text=The%20Sino%2DCongolais%20des%20Mines,in%20exchange%20for%20infrastructure%20investments.">human rights abuses</a>. </p>
<h2>What next</h2>
<p>In his presidential campaign, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/congos-tshisekedi-kicks-off-re-election-bid-with-vow-consolidate-achievements-2023-11-19/">Tshisekedi has emphasised</a> his administration’s economic and diplomatic achievements rather than the situation in eastern DRC.</p>
<p>However, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/04/opposition-candidates-jostle-for-position-before-drc-election">pushback</a> from opposition candidates on these achievements means Tshisekedi will need to campaign hard to win. An election that is seen as illegitimate will only further damage Tshisekedi’s credibility, especially given the amount of money the Congolese government is spending on it.</p>
<p>One of the best things Tshisekedi could do for his country now would be to run a free and fair election. This would go a long way towards rescuing his troubled term in office so far.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reuben Loffman has received funding from the British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Arts and Humanitaties Research Council, and the Presbyterian Historical Society. He is affiliated with the Labour Party. </span></em></p>Plenty remains to be done to improve the lives of Congolese citizens.Reuben Loffman, Lecturer in African History, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1083522018-12-07T08:03:49Z2018-12-07T08:03:49ZSexual violence as a weapon of war: why the Nobel Prize for Peace matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249280/original/file-20181206-128214-m4w3yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize: Nadia Murad (left) with Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Stephanie Lecocq</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For ordinary women and men, peace is vital – as essential as air itself. Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize award of 2018, know this. </p>
<p>Mukwege is “the helper” who has provided medical care and surgery for thousands of survivors of sexual violence in his country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In 1999 he founded the <a href="https://www.panzifoundation.org/#home">Panzi Hospital</a> that’s become known for its <a href="https://www.panzifoundation.org/the-panzi-model-1/#the-panzi-model">comprehensive support</a> to over <a href="https://www.panzifoundation.org/statistics/">48,482 survivors</a> of sexual violence.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.mukwegefoundation.org/2018/10/statement-by-dr-denis-mukwege-on-the-nobel-peace-prize-2018/">Mukwege´s response</a> to the Nobel Committee was both a call to action and a promise to all survivors of sexual violence that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the world refuses to sit idly in the face of your suffering.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For her part, Murad is “the witness”. A young woman from the Yazidi community in northern Iraq, she was abducted and held captive by the Islamic State just over four years ago. Now she’s a global voice against sexual violence, human trafficking and genocide. Murad displays relentless courage as an author, human rights activist, and story teller. As a survivor of human trafficking and sexual violence, she has challenged the UN, national governments, and international organisations to take action to ensure that she truly is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/books/review/nadia-murad-last-girl.html">“The Last Girl”</a> to experience such horrors. </p>
<p>The recognition of the role played by these two people matters enormously in strengthening the campaign against the use of sexual violence as a <a href="https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1148245/FULLTEXT01.pdf">weapon of war</a>. Although this isn’t a new concept, it’s nevertheless taken an eternity to be acknowledged. </p>
<h2>Patterns</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/reports/sg-reports/SG-REPORT-2017-CRSV-SPREAD.pdf">Forms</a> of conflict-related sexual violence include – but are not limited to – rape, forced pregnancy, slavery and torture. </p>
<p>Sexual violence can serve the purpose of humiliation, rewarding recruits, instilling fear or as a mechanism of ethnic cleansing. As such, it can become widespread, systematic and organised; or targeted, indiscriminate, opportunistic and merely tolerated; or a combination of both. </p>
<p>Patterns of sexual violence in wartime are <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-the-red-cross/article/conflictrelated-sexual-violence-and-the-policy-implications-of-recent-research/9AD6D7059C9DE6A0926A701D53E1A86B">extraordinarily varied and complex</a>. It’s <a href="https://eba.se/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/DDB-2015-5-Angela-Muvumba-Sellstr%C3%B6m_web.pdf">often perpetrated by a few armed actors</a>, rather than all of them. The <a href="http://www.sexualviolencedata.org/">Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict</a> data set shows that not all armed groups commit this violence.</p>
<p>My own research has provided additional insights. I reviewed <a href="http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:766398/FULLTEXT01.pdf">post-war sexual violence reports</a> between 1989 and 2011, of 23 armed actors in sub-Saharan Africa. Five didn’t have any sexual violence events attributed to them following settlement. Only eight were reported as responsible for 68% of abuses and assaults.</p>
<p>Reliance on material benefits is one explanation for <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/%7Emh2245/papers1/apsr2006/MHJW08APSR2006_paper.pdf">brutal behaviour</a> against unarmed civilians. Living in an area with valuable commodities and natural resources has often been associated with the prevalence of wartime sexual violence. For example, in eastern DRC, the presence of minerals has contributed to organised armed violence, wartime rape and other forms of sexual violence. </p>
<p>This is backed up by research which has found <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214790X16300107">a higher risk of experiencing sexual violence outside of domestic relations</a>, in close proximity to mines and armed actors. One factor seems to be that easy access to weapons, lootable resources, and financing seems to make armed groups more organisationally incoherent. This means that they are prone to under-investing in discipline. In turn this leads to forced recruitment and other cheap and coercive means for mobilisation. Leaders who don’t need civilian support or <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100920580">who have abducted</a> their foot soldiers, strikingly, seem to enable gang rape as a form of socialisation within the ranks. </p>
<h2>The burden</h2>
<p>Other forms of violence in wartime can linger in the bodies and psyches of men and women for a long time. However, while soldiers are recognised for their heroism or courage, recompensed with a pension or integrated into a new army, survivors of sexual violence are silenced and ignored. </p>
<p>And yet many cannot bear children and are cast out of their communities as “polluted” or “unmarriageable”. <a href="https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/8579754">They suffer</a> from disease, chronic illness and complicated sexual and reproductive health concerns. They must endure long-term, recurrent depression and anxiety, among many psycho-social-spiritual costs. They are made to feel worthless, disposable to society, marginal. They are often poorer, less able or likely to access education, training and opportunities. </p>
<p>These consequences intersect with social and familial constraints – stigma, impoverishment, alienation, fragmentation – which can accompany war and humanitarian crisis and have particularly negative consequences for survivors of sexual violence. </p>
<h2>Addressing the costs</h2>
<p>In the absence of structures and institutions and processes to address these consequences, Mukwege and Murad strive to shift stigma and shame away from the survivors, and to call on all to respond with social justice. </p>
<p>Mukwege’s work at the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, in South Kivu, is increasingly taken up with more than general medicine. The foundation that grew from this facility now also provides social, economic, judicial and psychological assistance. </p>
<p>For its part, the Nadia Initiative works with advocacy tools to make life in the Sinjar province in northern Iraq of the Yazidi community possible, and to seek justice for sexual violence survivors.</p>
<p>Both Nobel laureates are highlighting the need to do more. Survivors and their communities deserve recognition for the atrocities that have been committed against them. But they also need material support in the form of services and fundamental human rights and justice.</p>
<p>A Nobel Prize for this work means recognising sexual violence as a weapon of war. But Mukwege and Murad probably don’t want us to stop there. After all, they and the women and men they champion need resources for health care, education and legal assistance and post-conflict reconstruction. Just as their bodies and spirits need healing, so do their countries and communities. </p>
<p><em>Research assistants Christiana Lang and Chiara Tulp contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108352/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Muvumba Sellström receives funding from the Swedish Research Council.</span></em></p>The awarding of the Nobel Prize for Peace to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad should strengthen efforts against the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.Angela Muvumba Sellström, Researcher, Department of Peace and Conflict, Uppsala University, The Nordic Africa InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1052342018-10-19T08:42:21Z2018-10-19T08:42:21ZViolence against women: Nobel Peace Prize is a start – but legal backing is long overdue<p>The decision to award the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize to two campaigners against sexual violence against women in conflict, <a href="https://theconversation.com/nobel-peace-prize-awarded-to-nadia-murad-and-denis-mukwege-for-campaigns-against-sexual-violence-104494">Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege</a> has rightly been hailed as a much-needed signal that the international community recognises the severity of this problem in an increasingly conflict-ridden world.</p>
<p>Violence against women has been a topic engaging feminist legal scholars and international lawyers for a long time. A sustained feminist advocacy emerged around widespread reports of sexual violence experienced by women during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the early 1990s. This culminated in the creation of the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/">International Criminal Court</a> in 2002, whose statute enables the prosecution of a range of sexual harms.</p>
<p>So giving this prestigious prize to two frontline human rights activists does highlight the growing global recognition of the widespread and endemic sexual harms women suffer during wartime. But despite this welcome recognition – and in spite of the widespread reporting of sexual violence incidences in conflict – the international legal system lacks a binding legal convention on the prohibition of violence against women. There is therefore a gap between symbolism and legal reality.</p>
<h2>Personal ordeals</h2>
<p>Murad was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy work in relation to her experience as a Yazidi-Kurdish woman who survived sexual violence assaults – including numerous rapes and prolonged sexual enslavement at the hands of Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq in 2014. In 2016 she became the UN goodwill ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking, using her appointment as a platform to raise awareness of the widespread nature of human trafficking of women before the United Nations Security Council. </p>
<p>In 2017 she published <a href="https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2017/11/30/nadia-murads-tale-of-captivity-with-islamic-state">her memoir</a>, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State, in which she recounts her ordeal at the hands of IS and advocates for the prosecution of IS fighters before the International Criminal Court. She has also continually reiterated the idea that rape and sexual slavery need to be conceptualised as weapons of war and treated as such by international criminal law. In a recent interview she said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Rape has been used throughout history as a weapon of war. I never thought I would have something in common with women in Rwanda – before all this, I didn’t know that a country called Rwanda existed – and now I am linked to them in the worst possible way, as a victim of a war crime that is so hard to talk about that no one in the world was prosecuted for committing it until just 16 years before ISIS came to Sinjar.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mukwege gained worldwide acclaim for his work as a surgeon, gynaecologist and women’s rights activist. He founded the <a href="https://www.panzifoundation.org/panzi-hospital/">Panzi Hospital</a> in Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1999 as a clinic specialising in gynaecological and obstetric care, performing complex surgeries on women who had been raped and viciously sexually assaulted during armed conflict in the DRC from 2003 to 2016. </p>
<p>Having treated 40,000 survivors of sexual violence, he is today considered one of the world’s leading experts on “repairing” the internal physical damage caused by gang rape. In addition to restorative surgery, the hospital also provides psychological support for victims and offers a one-stop hospital for rape survivors, as well as providing financial support for the women affected in order to enable them to reintegrate into society.</p>
<p>Both activists have brought to the world’s attention the gendered nature of armed conflict and have shone a light on a pervasive phenomenon of modern wars. This has also been one of the central concerns of the UN Security Council, which has passed <a href="https://www.peacewomen.org/why-WPS/solutions/resolutions">eight resolutions</a> on Women, Peace and Security, since 2000. </p>
<h2>Time for action</h2>
<p>But despite the powerful symbolic victory of the Nobel Peace Prize, the reality on the ground remains that a binding convention on the prohibition of gender-based violence in all its forms is still lacking. The <a href="http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/">1979 Women’s Convention (CEDAW)</a>, often heralded as the most significant treaty for the elimination of discrimination against women, does not contain a specific prohibition against gender-based violence. </p>
<p>Neither does the <a href="http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cedaw/cedaw.html">1992 CEDAW Committee Declaration No. 19</a> – a landmark declaration defining gender-based violence, which is symbolic rather than binding in nature. The UN Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security, such as <a href="http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/wps/">UN Resolution 1325</a> – which calls on all state actors and those involved in post-conflict reconstruction efforts to incorporate a gender-based perspective into the transitional peace process and emphasises the full and equal participation of women in all peace-related efforts – have not led to the securing of a binding resolution on the prohibition of gender-based violence. </p>
<p>There remains a persistent moral gap between rhetoric and practice when it comes to addressing gender-based violence. What is lacking is a clear political will to implement a multilateral convention that would impose obligations on state parties. As former UN special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/RashidaManjoo.aspx">Rashida Manjoo</a> told me when I interviewed her in 2015: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the challenges is that, whereas the rhetoric is that violence against women is a human rights violation, the reality is that there is an absence of responding to that in a deeper way that demands a different response. So when the rhetoric is that it is a human rights violation, and we do not acknowledge that it is pervasive, that it is systemic and that it has numerous structural causes, including socioeconomic causes, then actions must reflect this reality.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is especially important in light of the fact that gender-based violence almost always exists on a continuum of violence. Frequently, there is a link between the prolonged incidences of domestic violence in peacetime and the levels of sexual violence seen in armed conflict. This has been <a href="https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/research/ILJ/upload/Manjoo-McRaith-final.pdf">seen time and time again</a>, in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as well as in the DRC.</p>
<p>The recent recognition of the advocacy efforts of the two Nobel laureates therefore serves as a vital reminder that the actual work of drafting and putting into effect a binding convention for the prohibition of violence against women is an urgent priority, which can no longer go unaddressed by the international community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105234/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniela Nadj does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is an urgent need for a binding convention for the prohibition of violence against women.Daniela Nadj, Lecturer in Public Law, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1045302018-10-05T21:01:08Z2018-10-05T21:01:08ZWarriors against sexual violence win Nobel Peace Prize: 4 essential reads<p>In a world whose attention is <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/metoo-goes-global-and-crosses-multiple-boundaries">fixed on the victims of sexual assault and violence</a>, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Denis Mukwege of the Congo and Nadia Murad of Iraq “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”</p>
<p>The two winners, said the <a href="https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/The-Nobel-Peace-Prize-2018">Nobel committee in its award announcement</a>, “have made a crucial contribution to focusing attention on, and combating, such war crimes. Denis Mukwege is the helper who has devoted his life to defending these victims. Nadia Murad is the witness who tells of the abuses perpetrated against herself and others.”</p>
<p>The Conversation’s archives provide background on the problems the two winners are trying to address. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nobel Peace Prize winners Denis Mukwege, left, and Nadia Murad, right.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Nobel-Peace-Prize/5899fc698d774153b360444ff6d20506/9/0">AP/Christian Lutz</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. Helping the victims</h2>
<p>In 2015, scholar Lee Ann De Reus got ahead of the Nobel committee when she wrote an analysis for The Conversation headlined <a href="https://theconversation.com/denis-mukwege-deserves-the-nobel-peace-prize-for-his-work-in-congo-48489">“Denis Mukwege Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for His Work in Congo.”</a>. </p>
<p>Mukwege, a physician, runs a hospital for victims of sexualized violence in the Congo, the site of armed conflicts for the last 20 years. One 2011 study estimated that 48 women were raped every hour in that country. While what is known as the Second Congo War ended in 2003 with an estimated 5 million dead, violence has continued throughout the country since then, with rape frequently used by militias to terrorize civilians. </p>
<p>Hospital records documented that at the time De Reus wrote the article, Mukwege had “personally treated over 20,000 women, girls, men and boys who have suffered the physical and psychological wounds of traumatic rape.”</p>
<h2>2. Fighting IS</h2>
<p>Reports emerged from the Middle East in 2015 that the Islamic State group, or IS, was systematically raping women and girls under the pretext that their religion sanctioned such assaults on non-Muslims. Nobel winner Nadia Murad, a member of a minority in Iraq known as the Yazidis, was herself raped by IS members, along with thousands of other women and girls abducted by the militants. Murad was able to escape her captors and has subsequently devoted herself to publicizing the ordeal of IS victims. </p>
<p>“Beheadings, burning people alive, mass rape – these are <a href="https://theconversation.com/isis-has-changed-international-law-56781">the methods of IS terror,”</a> writes international law scholar Michael Scharf. But countries that wanted to fight IS and its brutal methods found themselves in a quandary, wrote Scharf. IS wasn’t a state, and international law made fighting such a group difficult. The need to fight IS, writes Scharf, would challenge international law’s very foundation. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 47-year-old rape victim in the refugee camp in the Liberian capital Monrovia in 2003. Kula, who wished to have her identity protected for fear of reprisals, was repeatedly gang-raped by rebels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Nobel-Peace-Sexual-Violence-In-Conflicts/565bcd9781254669b0362ab2402df3f3/4/0">AP/Ben Curtis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. ‘Global pandemic’ of sexual violence</h2>
<p>Women across the globe experience sexual assault and sexual violence at shockingly high rates, write Valerie Dobiesz and Julia Brooks, <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-oreilly-and-weinstein-sexual-violence-is-a-global-pandemic-85960">experts in emergency medicine and legal research</a>. </p>
<p>From honor killings to female infanticide to forced marriages and trafficking, “This issue transcends national borders and class boundaries to touch the lives of roughly 33 percent of all women worldwide,” they write. </p>
<h2>4. Stopping sexual predation where it starts</h2>
<p>How to fight the scourge of sexual assault and violence in the U.S.? <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-prevent-sexual-harassment-and-assault-start-by-teaching-kids-85879">Begin with children</a>, write scholars Poco Kernsmith, Joanne Smith-Darden and Megan Hicks. </p>
<p>Right now, prevention programs focus on teaching girls and women how to minimize their risks of being assaulted. Instead, write the scholars, “Real prevention needs to focus on the only person who can actually prevent harassment: the potential perpetrator.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104530/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
With the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to two leaders who fight against sexual violence as a tool of war, we looked into our archive to find stories about those efforts across the globe.Naomi Schalit, Senior Editor, Politics + Democracy, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/484892015-10-08T22:58:45Z2015-10-08T22:58:45ZDenis Mukwege deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Congo<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97716/original/image-20151008-9664-gh4y7n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Denis Mukwege</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Torleif Svensson/Panzi Hospital</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Regardless of who wins the Nobel Peace Prize this year, Denis Mukwege deserves the award for his important work in Congo.</p>
<p>Mukwege is a Congolese physician who heals broken bodies and restores dignity to survivors of sexualized violence at Panzi Hospital. </p>
<p>According to hospital records, he has personally treated over 20,000 women, girls, men and boys who have suffered the physical and psychological wounds of traumatic rape. </p>
<p>As a scholar-activist and the cofounder of Panzi Foundation USA, I travel regularly to the hospital in eastern Congo to conduct research, develop programs for rape survivors, and inform my advocacy work in the US. </p>
<h2>Mukwege’s vision</h2>
<p>Mukwege founded the Panzi Hospital in 1999 to stem the high maternal mortality rates driven by the war that raged near his home. His first patient, however, was a rape survivor who had suffered horrific internal injuries due to the perpetrator’s assault with a knife. </p>
<p>As the war continued, so did the number of women coming to him in desperate need of medical treatment for illness or wounds from sexualized violence. </p>
<p>Today, under Mukwege’s leadership, the hospital and its staff are known worldwide for their specialized care of survivors, including the surgical repair of fistula caused by traumatic rape or pregnancy. </p>
<p>The current staff totals 370 people, including 40 physicians, who provide world-class care for over 18,000 patients a year in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/africa/democratic-republic-congo">an environment</a> characterized by continued violence, poverty and a lack of basic services such as consistent water, electricity, sanitation and passable roads.</p>
<p>The need in eastern Congo is great. Over the last 20 years, nearly six million people have died and <a href="http://www.womenundersiegeproject.org/conflicts/profile/democratic-republic-of-congo">tens of thousands</a> of women have been raped due to the ongoing armed conflicts. </p>
<p>These mass atrocities are a symptom of failed economic, social and political structures rooted in the legacy of colonization, gender disparities, the geopolitics of the region – and a scramble for “conflict minerals” made profitable by the first world’s consumption of electronic devices such as cellphones. </p>
<h2>‘Tell others’</h2>
<p>I first met Mukwege during a three-week research trip to his hospital during the summer of 2009. I was there to interview women about their experiences of gender-based violence, the resulting stigma and their hopes for the future. I also conducted a research methodology workshop for medical students completing their residencies at Panzi. </p>
<p>While there, I met 14-year-old Mateso – just one of the over 1,900 recipients of medical treatment at Panzi that year for injuries due to sexualized violence. She shared unspeakable horrors that were masked by her confident demeanor, ease and quick smile. </p>
<p>I asked Mateso why she thought it important to share her experience with me. She said, “I tell you my story because so many people don’t know. I want you to tell others.”</p>
<p>A year later, Mukwege and I joined forces, along with Peter Frantz, to cofound Panzi Foundation USA. The mission of our nonprofit organization is based on Mukwege’s vision and objective to raise awareness about the challenges in eastern Congo. We are engaged in strategic advocacy to end violence against women and support Panzi’s programs to heal women and restore lives. </p>
<h2>Empowering women</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97714/original/image-20151008-9685-o6nfhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97714/original/image-20151008-9685-o6nfhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97714/original/image-20151008-9685-o6nfhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97714/original/image-20151008-9685-o6nfhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97714/original/image-20151008-9685-o6nfhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97714/original/image-20151008-9685-o6nfhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97714/original/image-20151008-9685-o6nfhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maison Dorcas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lee Ann De Reus</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A unique aspect of the hospital is Maison Dorcas, an after-care facility for survivors of gender-based violence. </p>
<p>Following discharge from Panzi, many women are unable to return to their homes. Some need follow-up care. Some have have been displaced from their communities because of the conflicts. Others have been cast out of their families due to the heavy social stigma associated with rape. </p>
<p>At Maison Dorcas, 200 women can extend their stay and receive counseling for the treatment of trauma, legal assistance for prosecution of perpetrators, literacy instruction and skill-based training. The programs are designed to enhance a woman’s ability to heal, provide for herself and her family, and take an active role in her community. </p>
<p>Panzi Foundation USA has also initiated a petition calling on Secretary of State John Kerry and other US officials to pressure the Congolese government to hold free and fair elections in 2016 that <a href="http://www.panzifoundation.org/take-action-1/">include women</a> as candidates, advocates and voters. </p>
<p>Our work is informed by the belief that the restoration of women’s lives strengthens civil society and is one essential measure for stemming mass atrocities. </p>
<h2>Indigenous voices</h2>
<p>As one woman, Mwamaroyi, a survivor turned advocate, told me in an interview: “If I were given the floor, I would speak up and tell people that rape and violence have had terrible consequences. Please, it is time for the violence to stop.” </p>
<p>Persistent oversimplifications by media, aid agencies, development organizations, advocacy groups, academics and other well-meaning parties often distort the world’s perceptions of Congo. In order to break this cycle, the voices of survivors and the Congolese who work with them must be heard. </p>
<p>Mukwege is a tireless and outspoken advocate for women such as Mateso and Mwamaroyi – but not without personal cost. He receives death threats, and there have been serious <a href="http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/pmu_interlife/pressreleases/assassination-attempt-on-dr-denis-mukwege-prominent-congolese-doctor-and-activist-807101">attempts</a> on his life. </p>
<p>Awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize will amplify an often overlooked indigenous voice, draw global attention to Congo, and help Mukwege confront the complex causes of suffering in DRC.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48489/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee Ann De Reus is on the Board of Panzi Foundation USA. She has also received funding for research conducted at Panzi Hospital.
</span></em></p>The Congolese physician has treated over 20,000 victims of traumatic rape in a conflict fueled in part by ‘conflict minerals’ used to make cellphones.Lee Ann De Reus, Associate Professor of Human Development & Family Studies; Women's Gender & Sexuality Studies, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/190042013-10-11T11:57:16Z2013-10-11T11:57:16ZNobel prize overplays OPCW role in global peace struggle<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32892/original/g3qk55nm-1381490468.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">MIssion: OPCW seeks the elimination of chemical weapons globally.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Moadamiyeh Media Centre</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the second international organisation to win in two years following the European Union. </p>
<p>Alone among the Nobel Prizes, the peace prize <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/">was created</a> by Alfred Nobel to be awarded yearly to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” </p>
<p>The award was given to the OPCW, created in 1997 following the ratification of the <a href="http://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention/">Chemical Weapons Convention</a> (CWC), for <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2013/press.html">its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons</a>. The committee also gave the prize as a way to encourage other states to sign the CWC or fulfil their obligations within it. These include the United States and Russia, who <a href="http://thebulletin.org/chemical-weapons-destruction-deadline-missed">missed an April 2012 deadline</a> for destroying their chemical weapons.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">OPCW director general Ahmet Üzümcü.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CSIS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ensuring no state uses chemical weapons is a critical issue. The CWC is a widely respected treaty, ratified by <a href="http://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/cwcsig">189 states</a>. Bringing attention to the OPCW’s work in dismantling chemical weapons stocks throughout the world, and to the need to continue this process, is laudable.</p>
<h2>What about Syria?</h2>
<p>Overshadowing this explanation, however, will be Syria. The Assad regime used chemical weapons in Ghouta, outside Damascus, on August 21, 2013, killing <a href="http://www.hrw.org/node/118724/section/4">at least 734 people</a>. Syria has agreed to ratify the CWC and give up its chemical weapons, a move endorsed by the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/2118%282013%29">UN Security Council</a>, and the OPCW will destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stocks by <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-14/us-russia-agree-plan-on-syrias-chemical-weapons/4958432">mid-2014</a>. </p>
<p>However, the OPCW has only been on the ground in Syria since October 1, and has only started to dismantle the weapons. Certainly the recent Security Council decision is an important step towards preventing future use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime. But the agreement contributes little to the general protection of the civilian population from the pervasive violence that has engulfed their country and which has killed over a hundred thousand people.</p>
<p>With the notable exception of Syria, chemical weapons use has become very rare. The last use to kill more than 1,000 people was by Saddam Hussein against the Kurdish population of Halabja in Northern Iraq in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/16/newsid_4304000/4304853.stm">1988</a>. </p>
<p>Richard Price has <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Chemical_Weapons_Taboo.html?id=bWutpop3t4QC&redir_esc=y">argued</a> there is a contemporary taboo against the use of these weapons, stating that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The taboo was broken more than it was honoured early on, but today stands out as one of the most successful efforts to curtail the horrors of war.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The CWC and the OPCW have certainly contributed to this work, but it would be an exaggeration to suggest they have led it.</p>
<h2>Favourites missed out</h2>
<p>What of the candidates who were widely touted as favourites but did not get the prize: Malala Yousafzai and Denis Mukwege? </p>
<p>Yousafzai, who won the <a href="European%20Union%E2%80%99s%20Sakharov%20human%20rights%20prize">European Union’s Sakharov Prize</a> for human rights yesterday, has a story both gripping and horrific. From the Swat Valley in Pakistan, she first blogged anonymously, then spoke publicly about the need for girls and women to be educated. For this, she was targeted and shot by the Taliban. While she has recovered and is now based in Birmingham, the shooting brought her - and the need for worldwide access to education - into the spotlight.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32891/original/k7f2j28v-1381490312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32891/original/k7f2j28v-1381490312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32891/original/k7f2j28v-1381490312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32891/original/k7f2j28v-1381490312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32891/original/k7f2j28v-1381490312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32891/original/k7f2j28v-1381490312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32891/original/k7f2j28v-1381490312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32891/original/k7f2j28v-1381490312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Bravery: Malala Yousafzai.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Niall Carson/PA Wire</span></span>
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<p>Since her recovery, she has spoken at the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/12/us-malala-un-idUSBRE96B0IC20130712">UN</a>, and she is the <a href="http://educationenvoy.org/press/malala-day">public face</a> of former British prime minister Gordon Brown’s campaign for universal education as UN special envoy for global education.</p>
<p>Dr Mukwege’s story is equally gripping. Working in Bukavu, he is the founder and medical director of the <a href="http://www.panzifoundation.org/Hospital.aspx">Panzi Hospital</a>, where he and his colleagues have treated about 30,000 female survivors of sexual violence. He has also taken on a public role as an advocate for the rights of women. </p>
<p>In September 2012 he made a speech at the UN where <a href="http://congofriends.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/dr-dennis-mukweges-speech-at-un.html">he argued</a> “we need action, urgent action, to arrest those responsible for these crimes against humanity and to bring them to justice.” For this speech, he too faced an assassination attempt in October, <a href="http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/pressroom/pmu_interlife/pressrelease/view/assassination-attempt-on-dr-denis-mukwege-prominent-congolese-doctor-and-activist-807101?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Alert&utm_content=pressrelease">narrowly escaping</a> an attack that killed a security guard.</p>
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<span class="caption">Faced assassination attempt: Denis Mukwege.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Radio Okapi</span></span>
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<p>By winning, either of these candidates would have reflected the growing international recognition given to the women’s peace and security agenda as it has been mandated by <a href="http://www.peacewomen.org/themes_page.php?id=15&subtheme=true&adhoc=53">United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325</a> and later resolutions. This body of international policy draws attention to the specific challenges borne by women and girls in conflict settings and the important, if often neglected, roles women and girls can play as brokers of peace and conflict resolution. </p>
<p>The OPCW is certainly deserving of the prize. But it does feel like the committee has been affected by the politics of the past few months, when it could have made a clear statement about the critical work that peace builders undertake in areas of conflict throughout the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole George receives funding from the Australian Research Council to research gender violence in the Pacific Islands</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phil Orchard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the second international organisation to win in two years following the European Union. Alone…Phil Orchard, Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies and International Relations, The University of QueenslandNicole George, Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.