A co-winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize called Monday for a global fight against genocide and sexual violence, pledging to be a voice for victims around the world, AP reported.

Iraqi Nadia Murad said in her first news conference since accepting the award that she feels obligated to use her voice to defend the rights of persecuted people around the world.

“We must work together to put an end to genocide, hold accountable those who commit these crimes and achieve justice for the victims,” Murad told a packed room at the National Press Club.

The 25-year-old Murad was among thousands of women and girls from the Yazidi minority who were kidnapped and enslaved in 2014 by the group that calls itself the Islamic State. The Yazidis are an ancient religious minority who trace their roots to a number of small villages in a remote part of northern Iraq.