An award for children’s rights and love for Obama
Indian activist and Pakistani human rights advocate receive the Nobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a Pakistani human rights activist Malala Yousafzai (17) and a children’s rights advocate Kailash Satyarthi (60) from India. As the Nobel Committee stated, laureates received this high award for “fighting against the oppression of children and for their right to receive education.” Satyarthi has actively participated in the Indian movement against the exploitation of child labor. His organization freed over 80,000 minors from various forms of slavery. He pressed for the implementation of labeling Indian carpets, which shows that the product has been made without the involvement of child labor. Now he heads the Global Campaign for Education, which includes more than 400 NGOs. The laureate lives in New Delhi with a wife, two of his own children, and a foster daughter.
Yousafzai became well-known in 2009 for the blog she wrote in Urdu for British Broadcasting Company (BBC). She fought for the girls’ rights to attend school. In one of her interviews she said she wanted to obtain education and become a doctor in the future. However, her father thought she had a greater potential, that she could become a politician and improve the world. With time, Malala did listen to her father and abandoned her dream. In the following interviews she had been already telling about the plans to create her own party and open an institute for girls.
This stirred the anger of Taliban leaders. They included the young activist in the hit list of their victims. They could not forgive her “pro-Western views.” They were especially infuriated by her post in which she expressed admiration and even love towards President Barack Obama for support of democracy in the world.
Yousafzai lived in Mignora in Swat Valley, which is located in the northern part of the country, 160 kilometers away from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Taliban militants tried to shoot her on October 9, 2012, when she was going home from school with her classmates.
As the classmates told later, two bearded men drove up to them in a car, stopped, and asked children to show them Malala Yousafzai. Since the girls were aware that their friend was threatened, they said they did not know her. Then the terrorists called her out when she and other girls were getting on the bus and started shooting. During the unexpected attack one bullet hit Malala’s head, and another – her neck.
The girl went through a three-hour-long surgery in a military hospital in Peshawar. Both civilian and military doctors were involved. Senior neurosurgeon Mumtaz Khan explained that swelling began to develop in her brain, that is why they had to operate immediately and extract the bullet, which had hit the left cerebral hemisphere. According to some data, after the operation Malala fell into a coma, but fortunately, it was a short one. The most high-ranked officials were concerned with her health. President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari promised to send her for treatment abroad if the need emerged.
The attempt on Malala’s life evoked anger among Swat residents. Moreover, it seems that the Valley inhabitants were not scared by such tactics anymore. According to Malala’s teacher, her classmates decided to come back to school and resume studying after this incident. They supported their friend in this way and showed an example to the rest of the world. Undoubtedly, it happened thanks to their classmate’s influence.
At first, there were 278 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, 47 non-governmental and international organizations among them.
It is 19 candidates more than in 2013. The list was compiled in March and held confidential. The Nobel Committee shortened it to approximately 15 nominees. According to the rules, short-list entries should not be publicized, but the names leak into press long before the award ceremony. This year it became known back in March that Vladimir Putin was among candidates. It was also rumored that the list included Mustafa Dzhemilev.
It is hard to say what chances Putin could have had to receive the prize. However, after the annexation of Crimea and aggression against Ukraine they are equal to zero. It seems that the Russian national leader will never become a Nobel Prize laureate. Barack Obama, who was just at the beginning of his presidency, received the Nobel Peace Prize five years ago. Now it is highly doubtful that Putin can catch up with his American colleague in this respect. This is a blow to the pride and ambition of the Russian leader, who traded his international prestige for the slogan “Crimea is ours.” He knew what he was doing.
Besides, Pope Francis, who started a campaign against poverty and began reforming the Catholic Church, was also among the nominees. According to some mass media, the list also included former NSA and CIA employee Edward Snowden, who declassified data about the American intelligence’s observation of people all over the world, and gynecologist from the Democratic Republic of Congo Denis Mukwege, engaged in rehabilitation of women who became victims of sexual abuse during the wartime. The names of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, actress Angelina Jolie, President of Uruguay Jose Mujica, founder of the Albert Einstein Institution in Boston Gene Sharp (86), and a group of Japanese, who demand that the government preserves Article 9 of the Constitution, which forbids the country to participate in wars, were also mentioned. It was also said that the Russian Novaya Gazeta made it to the short-list.
South Korean periodical South China Morning Post commented that the result of the Nobel Committee vote was not clear until the very end. The final list did not have outstanding government figures of the level of Nelson Mandela (the Peace Prize of 1993), Mikhail Gorbachev (1990), or former US president Jimmy Carter (2002). Religious leaders also did not stand out too much against the background of their colleagues, even the current Pope impressed more with his modesty and repudiation of Vatican attributes, rather than reformative initiatives and actions.
During the previous years, mostly organizations became laureates of the most prestigious prize in the world. In 2013, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was awarded for development of the plan on elimination of this kind of weapons in Syria, which, according to numerous analysts, became the first step in a very long time towards peaceful settling of the Syrian conflict. The Committee reminded that Alfred Nobel considered the issue of disarmament to be of great importance. In 2012, the Nobel Peace Prize was given to the European Union for the contribution into consolidation of peace and democracy in the Old World. Before that, organizations were awarded in 1999 only, when Doctors without Borders organization became a laureate. In 2011, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President of Liberia Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee, and Arab Spring activist Tawakkul Karman.
MALALA YOUSAFZAI WITH HER FATHER ZIAUDDIN AFTER THE SPEECH AT THE LIBRARY OF BIRMINGHAM
The Nobel Peace Prize has been causing the hottest dispute, it even comes to diplomatic conflict. In 2010 the Peace Prize was awarded to a Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, who had been under house arrest for many years. The Nobel Committee still faces the consequences of this decision. From then on, relations between Norway and the People’s Republic of China became more complicated. In particular, Beijing put bilateral trade negotiations on hold.
Russia has only two laureates, but it can take full pride in one of them, academician Andrei Sakharov. His contribution to the cause of peace, struggle for democracy, and human rights is indeed impressive. When we talk about another Russian laureate Mikhail Gorbachev, the official propaganda either almost does not mention him in present-day Russia, or does only in the context of perestroika, which, according to Moscow propagandists, promoted the collapse of a great state, implying the “great Russia.”
The Nobel Peace Prize originated in 1901 and is the most reputable international award in the area of social, political, and humanitarian activities. It can be awarded to separate individuals, official, or non-governmental organizations. The Peace Prize is the only Nobel prize, the laureates of which are determined not in Sweden. The decision is made by the Norway Nobel Committee. According to Nobel’s will, the prize should be awarded to a person, who brought the greatest good to the humankind and did the most for the brotherhood between nations, for disbandment or reduction of army forces, propagating congresses in support of peace.
The first laureates of the prize were Henry Dunant, Switzerland, founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Frederic Passy, France, who created the International and Permanent League of Peace in his country.
The award ceremony traditionally takes place in the capital of Norway, Oslo, on December 10, the day of death of the founder of five Nobel Prizes, four of which are awarded in Stockholm. A laureate receives a diploma, a money check, and a gold medal, with a portrait of Alfred Nobel impressed on it.
Among the interesting facts from the award’s history was an attempt to give the Peace Prize to Vladimir Lenin, who took Russia out of the World War I. However, the leader of the Bolshevik proletariat was not included on the list before the deadline.