Girl Child Activist, Malala Yousafzai & Kailash Satyarthi Receives Nobel Peace Prize

Pakistani education activist, Malala Yousafzai and Indian child rights campaigner, Kailash Satyarthi have received the Nobel Peace Prize awards. The Nobel committee described both laureates as "champions of peace". Ms Yousafzai said she was there to stand up for the rights of forgotten and frightened children, and raise their voice rather than pity them. Mr Satyarthi said receiving the prize was "a great opportunity" to further his work against child slavery.

Ms Yousafzai and Mr Satyarthi received their awards from the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee, in the presence of King Harald V of Norway. They also delivered their Nobel lectures during the award ceremony.

"A young girl and a somewhat older man, one from Pakistan and one from India, one Muslim, the other Hindu; both symbols of what the world needs: more unity. Fraternity between the nations!" Thorbjoern Jagland, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee, said at the ceremony in Oslo.

In her speech, Ms Yousafzai said that the award was not just for her. "It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change, I am here to stand up for their rights, raise their voice. It is not time to pity them. It is time to take action so it becomes the last time that we see a child deprived of education."

Ms Yousafzai said she was dedicating the prize money to the Malala Fund, "to help give girls everywhere a quality education and call on leaders to girls like me...I will continue this fight until I see every child in school. I feel much stronger after the attack that I endured, because I know, no-one can stop me, or stop us, because now we are millions, standing up together."

In his speech, Mr Satyarthi said he was "representing the sound of silence" and the "millions of those children who are left behind". He said he had kept an empty chair at the ceremony as a reminder of the children without a voice. "There is no greater violence than to deny the dreams of our children. I refuse to accept that the shackles of slavery can ever be stronger than the quest for freedom," he added, to applause.

Ms Yousafzai and Mr Satyarthi were jointly awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education".

They have split the $1.4m (£860,000) prize money.

Sources: BBC News / Yahoo News!