WUNRN
Malala Yousafzai &
Kailash Satyarthi Are Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Credit Andy Buchanan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The awards, announced in
Pointedly,
Mr. Jagland
said, “The Nobel Committee regards it as an important point for a
Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for
education and against extremism.” Ms. Yousafzai is 17 while Mr. Satyarthi is
60.
“Children
must go to school and not be financially exploited,” Mr. Jagland said, adding:
"It is a prerequisite for peaceful global development that the rights of
children and young people be respected. In conflict-ridden areas in particular,
the violation of children leads to the continuation of violence from generation
to generation.”
“Showing great
personal courage, Kailash Satyarthi, maintaining Gandhi’s tradition, has headed
various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the
grave exploitation of children for financial gain,” Mr. Jagland said. “He has
also contributed to the development of important international conventions on
children’s rights.”
Despite his
works, Mr. Satyarthi is not nearly so widely known as Ms. Yousafzai, who was shot
in the head by the Taliban in 2012 for her campaigning on behalf of girls’
education in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. She was 15 at the time. Since then
she has become a global emblem of her struggle, celebrated on television and
through her own memoir.
She “has
already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has
shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to
improving their own situations,” Mr. Jagland said. “This she has done under the
most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a
leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education.”
The prize came after a year in which war
has spread into Europe with fighting in eastern
For the previous two years, the prize had
been awarded to international bodies: the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
in 2013 and the European Union in 2012.
The winner was chosen from 278 candidates,
47 of them of organizations, the highest overall number of candidates since the
prize was first
awarded in 1901. The previous record was 259 in 2013, according to the
Oslo-based committee, which traditionally makes its final choice at the last
minute and seeks unanimity.
_________________________________________________________________________