The European Parliament has awarded its highest human rights accolade, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, to Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecological surgeon who has treated thousands of women and risked his life in a campaign to end the use of mass rape as a weapon of war.

The $65,000 award was established in 1988 in honor of the Soviet dissident Andrei D. Sakharov. Previous winners include Nelson Mandela; Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general; and Malala Yousafzai, one of the recipients of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, for which Dr. Mukwege was a front-runner.

Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said in a statement on Tuesday that Dr. Mukwege, 59, had been chosen “for his fight for protection, especially of women.” He will be invited to Strasbourg, France, to receive the award on Nov. 26, the statement said.

“In many armed conflicts around the world, rape is used as a weapon of war,” the statement said. Dr. Mukwege helped victims in his country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, by founding the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu in 1998, and he still treats victims of sexual violence.