DENIS MUKWEGE is a doctor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who has made it his life’s mission to help tens of thousands of women and girls recover and rebuild their lives after experiencing gang rape and brutal sexual violence in the war taking place in the country.
D. Mukwege was born in 1955 in Bukavu. He studied medicine and established a gynaecology department at the Lemera hospital in the east of the DRC, but in 1996, with the outbreak of war, this hospital was destroyed. D. Mukwege returned to Bukavu, where he set up a tent hospital and built a new maternity ward and operating theatre, but in 1998, during the Second Congo War, all of this too was destroyed. D. Mukwege did not give up and resumed the work of his hospital in Panzi, working until late at night and training staff in how to treat women who had been injured by militants who had “declared women their common enemy.”
Since the hospital opened in 1999, when Mukwege admitted the first rape victim with gunshot wounds to the genitals and thighs, he has provided medical care to more than 40,000 women. In some weeks, dozens of raped and tortured women came to the hospital.
D. Mukwege is an internationally recognised expert in treating the pathological and psychosocial trauma caused by sexual violence. The Panzi hospital he leads provides psychological and physical care and helps women develop new skills for life, since many of them have been rejected by their communities after what they have endured. It helps girls return to school, and those who wish to turn to the courts are given legal assistance.
He became a tireless advocate for the interests of women who have suffered violence after he recognised on his operating table a young woman who had been born at the Panzi hospital and at whose birth he had assisted. This was a turning point that inspired D. Mukwege to do more than merely treat the victims, and both at home and abroad to voice calls to end the violent conflict over the DRC’s natural resources. In 2012, D. Mukwege himself also suffered – armed men broke into his home and seized his daughters as hostages. Mukwege’s bodyguard and friend was killed, but he himself managed to escape and, together with his family, went to Sweden and then to Belgium.
In 2013, when a group of women who live on less than a dollar a day together bought D. Mukwege a ticket home, he returned to the DRC. Now D. Mukwege lives at the Panzi hospital, despite continuous threats to his life. He actively cooperates with the European Parliament and the ICC, and with his emotional appeals to protect the lives of women and children in conflict-affected zones he has influenced the legislative work of the European Parliament regarding minerals from these conflict-affected zones.
His life and work are immortalised in the 2015 documentary film The man who mends women – the wrath of Hippocrates. With the support of the European Parliament, this film was subtitled into all the official languages of the EU member states.
Interview with Denis Mukwege (in English) – Part 1
Interview with Denis Mukwege (in English) – Part 2
Other articles in Latvian on the European Parliament website:
Denis Mukwege: “Rape is a cheap, accessible and devastating weapon”
Sakharov Prize laureate D. Mukwege: It is necessary to mobilise society
Sakharov Prize winner Denis Mukwege: “Women’s bodies have become a battlefield”
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In 2014, the President of the European Parliament and the leaders of the political groups voted unanimously to award the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the Congolese physician Denis Mukwege.
Denis Mukwege – a physician who stands up for women’s rights
In armed conflicts around the world, rape is used as a weapon of war, and Sakharov Prize laureate Denis Mukwege is well acquainted with this situation. In 1998, the 59-year-old Congolese gynaecologist founded the Panzi hospital in the city of Bukavu to provide help to women who had suffered sexual violence in the war-torn country. Although the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has officially ended, armed conflicts continue in the eastern part of the country, including attacks on civilians and gang rapes. Despite his activities in the field of women’s rights and his running of the Panzi hospital, Denis Mukwege finds time to see patients and to perform operations twice a week. Denis Mukwege was nominated for the Sakharov Prize by the S&D and ALDE groups and MEP Barbara Lochbihler.
The Sakharov Prize
Each year the European Parliament awards the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. It is named after the physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov. The prize was established in 1988 and is awarded to individuals and groups who have made a significant contribution to the protection of human rights. Candidates may be nominated by any of the political groups of the European Parliament or by at least 40 MEPs.
In 2013 the prize was received by the Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, who fights for girls’ right to education.
The European Parliament stands up for human rights
The European Parliament stands against human rights violations, no matter where they occur. To bring about respect for human rights, Parliament draws public attention to violations, helps monitor the conduct of elections around the world, ensures that human rights are respected in international economic and trade agreements, and each year awards the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Sources:
Photo: Denis Mukwege 2017, Panzi Foundation USA
youtube video – the Scandinavian programme Skavlan
European Parliament booklet and EP article: Denis Mukwege – the 2014 Sakharov Prize laureate