LONDON — A Congolese gynecologist and an Iraqi Yazidi woman who spoke out about her abuse at the hands of Islamic State militants were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, commending their work highlighting sexual violence as a weapon of war.

Denis Mukwege has spent much of his life helping victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, many of them in the country's long-running civil war. He has become a leading voice pressuring his own government and others for not doing enough to stop such abuses.

Nadia Murad was one of an estimated 3,000 Iraqi Yazidi women and girls who were kidnapped and raped or sexually abused at the hands of ISIS in 2014. After her escape she used her trauma as a platform to seek justice for the crimes against her community, becoming a United Nations goodwill ambassador in 2016.

Murad said she was honoured and humbled to be named a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

"I share this award with all Yazidis, with all the Iraqis, Kurds and all the minorities and all survivors of sexual violence around the world," she said in a statement to Reuters.

Mukwege dedicated his award to all women affected by rape and sexual violence.

"This violence committed on their bodies happens not only in our country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also in many other countries," he said at a news conference.

The committee's statement called Mukwege "the helper who has devoted his life to defending victims of wartime sexual violence." The committee said Murad "is the witness who tells of the abuses perpetrated against herself and others."

Denis Mukwege and his staff gained international recognition for their fight in treating and helping heal women who had been raped. Marc Jourdier / AFP - Getty Images

"We want to send out a message of awareness that women, who constitute half of the population in most communities, are used as a weapon of war," Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen said after announcing the winners in Oslo, Norway.

"They need protection and the perpetrators need to be prosecuted for their actions," she said.

Their award comes a decade after the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1820, classifying the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. The committee received nominations for 216 individuals and 115 organizations for this year's prize.