EP President praises Nobel Peace Prize award to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad

“The courage and resilience of Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, in their fight for common human values, richly deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. It is an immense joy for the European Parliament to see it awarded to them, two Sakharov Prize laureates. A man of peace and justice, Dr Mukwege is a beacon of humanity in our troubled times. He courageously denounced sexual violence as a weapon of war. Tens of thousands of women and girls who were victims of it owe their recovery to Dr Mukwege. Nadia Murad survived sexual enslavement by ISIS terrorists, who inflicted genocide on the Yazidi people, one of the world’s oldest religious communities. Today, her international commitment against impunity and for justice goes above and beyond, as she embodies the fight for the dignity of human trafficking survivors”, the President said. Background Denis Mukwege was given the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2014. Nadia Murad was awarded the prize in 2016, together with fellow human rights activist Lamiya Aji Bashar. The prize is conferred each year by the parliamentary assembly. It was set up in 1988 to honour individuals and organisations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms. 2018 marks 30 years since the Sakharov Prize was first awarded.