Denis Mukwege receives the title of Honoris Causa member of the French Academy of Medicine
Denis Mukwege during a press conference in Tokyo, October 3, 2019. Behrouz MEHRI / AFP
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Doctor Denis Mukwege received this Tuesday, January 11 the title of Honoris Causa member of the French Academy of Medicine.
The opportunity for the Nobel Peace Prize to make a speech and recall his fight.
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It was on Tuesday that the doctor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege received in Paris the title of Honoris Causa member of the French Academy of Medicine. A mark of esteem and respect for the work and commitment of the Congolese doctor in
the fight against sexual violence.
This is one of the most prestigious distinctions awarded by French universities to honor "
personalities of foreign nationality due to eminent services rendered to the sciences, letters or the arts, to France or to the university
"
During the presentation of the title, Dr Mukwege gave a speech lasting nearly an hour during which he returned to
the attack on the Lemera hospital in 1996
in South Kivu, DRC. “
In defiance of the most basic rule of international humanitarian law, the hospital in Lemera has been attacked. The patients and some of our staff were brutally murdered. Tapped into by this tragedy, I spent two years without exercising. Ordinary gestures of our medical practice became torment so much they reminded me of the unspeakable
, ”recalled the doctor.
Facing members of the French Academy of Medicine, he detailed how
rape is used as a weapon of war in eastern
DRC
and describes the atrocities suffered by the victims, in the vast majority of women of all ages.
As a committed doctor, he challenged his peers, recalling that the doctor's role should not always be limited to treating the consequences of violence.
He lamented that healthcare workers have now become "
a target
".
“
Today, with our humanitarian law partners, an organization that documents violations of humanitarian law committed against healthcare workers, we are at a loss to recognize the vulnerability of healthcare workers who, instead of being protected, are became the target of belligerents on various front lines across the world
, ”he told his peers.
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