Stockholm - German-based gynaecologist Monika Hauser has spent 15 years helping women who have suffered sexual violence in areas of conflict.

The founder of Medica Mondiale began her work with women and girls in Bosnia and later in war and post-war conflict zones ranging from Afghanistan to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

She was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, also called the Alternative Nobel Prize on Wednesday for "her tireless commitment to working with women who have experienced the most horrific sexualized violence in some of the most dangerous countries in the world."

She shared the prize with four other

The Swiss-born Hauser first read in 1992 about how mass rape was being used as a war strategy in Bosnia. A year later she opened a therapy centre in the Bosnian town of Zenica.

"At the time I was intensely angry when I read the detailed media reports of how the rapes took place. I wanted to provide concrete help to these women," she said about the start of her work.

The Cologne-based mother of a 12-year-old son soon became well- known and received numerous awards in Germany and elsewhere, including European Woman of the Year.

But she refused to accept Germany's highest honour, the Order of Merit, in 1996 in protest at a decision by the country's interior ministry to forcibly repatriate Bosnian refugees.

More than a decade later, the honour of winning the latest prize has done nothing to lessen her committed attitude to her work.

She has accused politicians in Europe of "not necessarily showing great interest" when it concerns women as victims of war.

Hauser also criticized German soldiers serving abroad who used the services of women forced into prostitution.

Hauser's parents left the South Tyrol region of Italy at the height of fascism and settled in Switzerland where she was raised. Hauser still has Italian citizenship although she has lived in Germany for 25 years.