Denis Mukwege
Awards & Honours
9
Awards Won
6
Honours
3
Records
Few living physicians carry a record like Mukwege's. The Nobel Peace Prize is the headline, but the depth is in the rest: the Right Livelihood Award, the Chatham House Prize, the International Women of Courage Award, France's Legion d'honneur, Belgium's Order of Leopold II and more than thirty honorary doctorates from universities including Oxford, Harvard and McGill. What makes the list unusual is that almost none of it recognizes a discovery or a publication. It recognizes a decision, made year after year, to keep operating on patients whose injuries the world preferred not to discuss. Mukwege has turned a hospital ward into a courtroom, a pulpit and a diplomatic channel, and the awards followed the work rather than the other way around.
Awards
Honours & Distinctions
Honorary Doctorate
Recognizing contributions to medicine and human rights.
Honorary Doctorate
Awarded for humanitarian service and advocacy.
Honorary Doctorate
Recognizing work with survivors of sexual violence.
Commander of the Order of Leopold II
National honor for medical and humanitarian service.
Chevalier of the Legion d'honneur
France's highest order of merit, later promoted to Officer.
Member of The Elders
Joined the group of independent global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela.
Records & Feats
First surgeon to build a comprehensive hospital program for wartime rape survivors
Panzi Hospital combined reconstructive surgery, psychological care, legal aid and economic reintegration for survivors of sexual violence, a model later replicated in other conflict zones.
Nobel Peace Prize awarded for work against sexual violence in war
Shared the 2018 prize with Nadia Murad, the first time the Nobel committee honored efforts specifically targeting wartime sexual violence.
Survived a targeted assassination attempt and returned to work
Shot in the chest at his home in Bukavu in 2012, he recovered and resumed operating at Panzi Hospital within weeks.