We are delighted to announce Congolese human rights activist Tatiana Mukanire as the winner of this year’s Anne-Marie Buhoro award for her “commitment to ending gender-based violence in the Great Lakes region”.

Tatiana Mukanire is a founding member of SEMA – the global network of survivors to end wartime sexual violence.

She is also the national coordinator of Mouvement des Survivantes, a survivor network in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) founded in 2017.

A victim of rape as a weapon of war herself, she transformed her ordeal through becoming a female leader and changemaker in her community.

“The Anne-Marie Buhoro prize proves that despite the atrocities suffered, we can positively impact our communities. Recognising the work we do inspires us to dream big and look to the future with optimism. It encourages us not to give up and to campaign more to put an end to all forms of violence, of which our sisters and brothers in the Great Lakes region are victims.”

—Tatiana Mukanire, Winner of the 2023 Anne-Marie Buhoro award

Tatiana wrote a powerful letter to her rapist in 2016, which inspired many other survivors to break the silence.

Today, the survivor network in the DRC exists in seven provinces that suffered atrocities, including sexual violence as a weapon of war, for decades. This movement now has more than 5,000 members including a few men.

In 2019, Tatiana and more than 60 survivors from SEMA came together to develop a screenplay based on their own lived experiences. Their film tells the stories of two women who have survived brutal sexual violence and their fight to find hope and justice. Watch the film here.

Tatiana was among the 10 finalists of the Women Peacebuilding Award in 2021.

The same year, she publishes Beyond our tears, a book in which she shares her testimony of victims of sexual violence and their experience of the war.

“We believe that no one is more deserving of the Anne-Marie Buhoro Award than Tatiana Mukanire. Much like Anne-Marie, Tatiana stands as a soul sister in the battle against sexual violence, particularly the use of such abuse as a tactic of war. This activist has overcome her trials and moved beyond her tears to save others, turning pain into strength. She deserves all the respect and encouragement for her commitment to the same cause.”

—Karim Abdessalem, INOVAS Board Member

The prize money will support the education of children whose mothers are survivors of sexual violence, as part of the House of Hope programme in Kavamu.

“This is to ensure that the children of the following have access to quality education despite the discrimination and rejection suffered by their mothers.”

—Tatiana Mukanire

About the Anne-Marie Buhoro Award

The Annual Anne-Marie Buhoro Award, established by INOVAS, aims to honour those who make “a significant impact on the reduction of gender-based violence and on the promotion and protection of the rights of survivors in the Great Lakes region”.

The prize honours memory of Anne-Marie Buhoro, a human rights activist from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu province who dedicated her life to fighting against sexual violence and promoting gender equality.

“When we talk about gender-based violence, in my experience, with the death of my elder sister in our own home, we are more frequently confronted with violence from within than from the outside… This leads us to address the issue of education, because we must educate ourselves [about GBV] before educating our children.”

—Providence Bireke, sister of Anne-Marie (pictured below)

As a victim of sexual violence herself, Anne-Marie felt motivated to work for other victims and survivors like her. In 2010, she and other women founded the Initiative for Vulnerable Persons and Women in Action for Integrated Development (IPVFAD), which provides support to victims and survivors of sexual violence in eastern DRC.

She played a central role in the establishment of INOVAS and its expansion in the DRC, as a step towards making survivors’ voices heard globally and lobbying for justice at the international level. Read more.

The selection panel for the 2023 award comprised Fatna El Bouih (Founding Member of INOVAS), Julienne Lusenge (Director of the Fonds pour les Femmes Congolaises and President of SOFEPADI in the DRC), Karim Abdessalem (Founding Member of INOVAS), and Gentil Kasongo (Programme Manager – DRC at Impunity Watch).