Joining 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winners for children’s healthy and educated development

Save the Children calls on national governments and international community to step up their efforts to support every girl and boy to an education and do everything they can to keep schools, teachers and pupils are safe from harm in crisis situations and other conflicts.

The children’s organisation brief statement was released in the light of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi who struggled against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.

The joint winner Malala represents the voices of the billions of children asking for a good education who refused to be oppressed by extremism and discrimination while Indian child rights campaigner, Kailash Satyarthi has been acting as a bold defender of those children who are abused through harmful work and trafficking.

“This prize is a strong message to us all to stand up against violence, discrimination and cruelty against children, especially those who are fighting for their rights. Their voices are crucial. This Nobel Peace prize makes children’s rights and children’s voices, asking for the right to learn and be protected from violence, echo in all corners of the world,” said Gunnar Andersen, Country Director for Save the Children in Vietnam.

“We should see this year’s peace prize as an inspiration and encouragement to end exploitation of children and to support every child’s right to education. This is even more important as we celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,” he said.

A Save the Children source showed that more than 57.8 million children are out of primary school globally and documented violent attacks on education between 2009 and 2013 are 9500 in 70 countries. The number of children working world wide is 168 million with 85 million doing in hazardous works. In Vietnam1.75 million out of 2.8 million children are classified as child labourers, 75 per cent of them work in hazardous conditions.

“Education is critical to solving the problem of child labour.  Children often don’t go to school because they are working. But equally importantly, poor quality education is one of the critical reasons children get involved in work. Inaccessible school, corporal punishment; lack of teachers or poor quality schools are common barriers met by children across the world,” said Gunnar Andersen.

Background information

Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi received their Nobel peace prize awards in Oslo on 10 December 2014. Save the Children Norway has been hosting the children’s celebration of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates annually since 1977 together with a child run organisation committee where children had opportunities to interview the prize winners.

 The story of the Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, getting shot in the head by a Taliban gunman at the age of 15, alongside two of her friends, sparked an international outburst of support for Malala and for every child’s right to an education. The attack was carried out at the school bus due to Malala’s public advocacy for girl’s right to education. Luckily both she and her friends survived to continue their education and to campaign for education. Malala has used the public interest around her story to establish a fund for education (The Malala fund) and to shed light on the barriers particularly girls face around the world in their quest for education.

 Kailash Satyarthi’s activism is said to be crucial for the International Labour Organization adoption of Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour. Kailash is also the founder of GoodWeave International (formerly known as Rugmark) as the first voluntary labelling, monitoring and certification system of rugs manufactured without the use of child-labour in South Asia. He has highlighted harmful child labour as a human rights issue and also had a role in linking the movement against child labour with the movement to achieve "Education for All". He was in fact one of the co-founders of the Global Campaign for Education, and has been on board of the Fast Track Initiative (now known as the Global Partnership for Education)