Nobel laureate starts fund for survivors of sexual violence
UNITED NATIONS — A Nobel Peace Prize-winning surgeon has launched a fund with the goal of providing reparations for survivors of conflicts around the world.
Dr. Denis Mukwege said in an interview Saturday that he and his team at Panzi Hospital in Congo could physically and mentally help victims of rape and other abuse.
But he says the only way to really heal survivors and to right the wrong that was done to them is through reparations.
He says that legal action can be taken against an alleged perpetrator, but that even when women win, “there is no reparation.”
Mukwege says reparations can be individual or collective, symbolic or financial, depending on the victim, the case and the context.
His hospital in war-torn Congo has treated over 50,000 victims of sexual violence.