Nobel Peace Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai. Photo courtesy of David Levy
Taliban attack survivor, education activist and co-founder of the Malala Fund, Malala Yousafzai, became the youngest Nobel winner ever as she and Kailash Satyarthi, a renowned and revered child activist of India, won the Nobel Peace Prize for working to protect children from slavery, extremism and child labour at great risk to their own lives.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation would like to take this opportunity to congratulate both Malala Yousafzai, for her campaigning for education for girls and her efforts in the fight against the repression of children and youth, and Kailash Satyarthi, who has been at the forefront of a global movement to end child slavery and exploitative child labour, on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. They follow in the footsteps of past winners of the Prize, including Liu Xiaobao, Prof Muhammad Yunus, Nelson Mandela, Wangari Maathai, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Shirin Ebadi, F. W. de Klerk, Aung San Suu Kyi, Albert Luthuli and many more moral giants.
As our founder, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela said “Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression”.
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Kailash Satyarthi. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
By honoring a 17-year-old Muslim girl from Pakistan and a 60-year-old Hindu man from India, the Norwegian Nobel Committee linked the peace award to conflicts between world religions and neighboring nuclear powers as well as drawing attention to children's rights.
This is a significant achievement to mark the International Day of the Girl Child, which takes place tomorrow, 11 October 2014. We will continue to salute those who work tirelessly for realisation of democracy, social justice and peace.
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#EndChildSlavery
www.malala.org
www.nobelprize.org