Nobel Peace Prize: anti-rape activists Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege win 2018 award
Bookies had tipped Kim Jong Un to get the honour
The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to two campaigners against rape in warfare, Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege.
The award was handed to the pair at a ceremony in Oslo on Friday morning.
Murad is an Iraqi Yazidi who was tortured and raped by militants connected to Islamic State. After escaping from her captors, she “became the face of a campaign to free the Yazidi people”, a Kurdish religious minority, the BBC says.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Mukwege is a Congolese gynaecologist who has treated tens of thousands of victims after setting up a “world-class facility to treat survivors of sexual violence” in the city of Bukavu, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, CNN reports.
The two prize winners are being honoured for their “efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war” and for their “crucial contribution to focusing attention on, and combating, such war crimes”, said Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen.
The Guardian notes that Mukwege had been “tipped to win for many years”, having appeared on the shortlist regularly for about a decade.
The newspaper’s editor, Katharine Viner, applauded his win in a tweet, describing him as “one of the greatest men alive”.
Mukwege and Murad were also congratulated by European Council President Donald Tusk and by BBC Persian’s Nafiseh Kohnavard, who met Murad after she had escaped from her Isis captors.
Previous recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize have ranged from humanitarian activists to inventors and statespeople. This year bookies had tipped a somewhat controversial figure to claim the award.
According to multiple news outlets, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was the favourite to become the next Nobel Peace Prize laureate alongside South Korean president Moon Jae-in, for their role in de-escalating tensions between the two nations and paving the way for the first ever summit between North Korea and the US.
According to the website Oddschecker, which gathers odds from across betting platforms, Kim and Moon were leading contenders in the run-up to the ceremony, with many betting sites predicting a greater than 50% chance of a win for Kim.
That theory was met with a mixed response.
“Twelve months ago the North Korean leader’s name being mentioned in contention for the award would have seemed absurd - but after months of escalating rhetoric on nuclear weapons, economic sanctions and threats of war, Mr Kim and Mr Moon made history with their summit,” said ABC News.
Not everyone was convinced. In an article in The Washington Post article titled “Dear Nobel Committee: Don’t even think about giving a prize to Kim Jong Un”, journalist Isaac Stone Fish wrote: “Kim’s crimes against his own people should disqualify him for a prize awarded to those who ‘have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind’. More importantly, the Nobel Committee would be singling out Kim for reducing tensions that he mostly caused in the first place.”
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
5 sleeper hit cartoons about Trump's struggles to stay awake in court
Cartoons Artists take on courtroom tranquility, war on wokeness, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The true story of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans
In depth The writer's fall from grace with his high-flying socialite friends in 1960s Manhattan is captured in a new Disney+ series
By Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK Published
-
Scottie Scheffler: victory for the 'pre-eminent golfer of this era'
Why Everyone's Talking About Masters victory is Scheffler's second in three years
By The Week Staff Published
-
Puffed rice and yoga: inside the collapsed tunnel where Indian workers await rescue
Speed Read Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel are suffering from dysentery and anxiety over their rescue
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Gaza hospital blast: What the video evidence shows about who's to blame
Speed Read Nobody wants to take responsibility for the deadly explosion in the courtyard of Gaza's al-Ahli Hospital. Roll the tape.
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Giraffe poo seized after woman wanted to use it to make a necklace
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Helicopter sound arouses crocodiles
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Woman sues Disney over 'injurious wedgie'
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Emotional support alligator turned away from baseball stadium
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Europe's oldest shoes found in Spanish caves
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Artworks stolen by Nazis returned to heirs of cabaret performer
It wasn't all bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published