Malala Yousafzai wins International Children’s Peace Prize 2013

Date: 13th October 2013
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

This year, Malala Yousafzai, a 16-year-old girl from Pakistan, who has risked her life in the fight for access to education for girls all over the world, won the International Children's Peace Prize 2013 on Friday 6th September.

Human rights activist Ms Tawakkol Karman from Yemen (the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2011) presented the prize to Malala in the Hall of Knights in The Hague.

Malala won the prize because she stands up for every child's right to an education and especially girls. The right to education for all reflects Article 28 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), whereby State Parties must 'recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity.'

Malala's work also reflects on Article 29 of the UNCRC, which states the purpose of education and its developmental aims.

• Read about Malala's life story here.

On Friday 11th October, the world celebrated 'International Day of the Girl Child' to highlight that the fulfillment of girls' right to education is first and foremost an obligation and moral imperative.

There is overwhelming evidence that girls' education, especially at the secondary level, is a powerful transformative force for societies and girls themselves: it is the one consistent positive determinant of practically every desired development outcome, from reductions in mortality and fertility, to poverty reduction and equitable growth, to social norm change and democratisation.

• Find out more about this day here.