Malala to Receive International Children's Peace Prize

Malala Yousafzai will receive the International Children's Peace Prize on September 6th

A teenage activist shot in the head by the Taliban is to receive the International Children's Peace Prize. Malala Yousafzai was targeted as she travelled to school in Pakistan after campaigning for girls' education. The 16-year-old was treated in Birmingham where she now lives.

Women's rights campaigner and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman will present Malala with the International Children's Peace Prize in The Hague, Holland, on 6 September.

Marc Dullaert, chairman of the Dutch Kids Rights Foundation, which awards the prize, said: "Malala was already one of the nominees in 2011, but this year the expert committee unanimously decided not to nominate other children, but to award the International Children's Peace Prize to Malala."

Malala, then aged 15, and two friends were attacked on their way home from school last October.
Surgeons in Pakistan removed a bullet from Malala's head, then transferred her to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where she had a titanium plate and cochlear implant fitted to help her hear.  She began attending Edgbaston High School in March.

Malala has been living in the UK since her father Ziauddin Yousafzai was appointed education attaché at the Pakistan consulate in Birmingham.  The Taliban in Pakistan has threatened the lives of both Mr Yousafzai and Malala since the shooting.

She has received support from around the world, with tens of thousands of people signing an online petition calling for her to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She has also signed a three million dollar book deal.  Malala  says the memoir is her own story and that of millions of others denied the chance to go to school.