Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani student activist, on Tuesday received the 2013 United Nations Human Rights Prize through a representative at the General Assembly’s commemorative meeting to mark the 65th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Malala was not present at the impressive ceremony because of commitments at her school in Birmingham, England, where she now resides. The prestigious award was accepted, on her behalf, by the coordinator of Malala Fund for Girls’ Education, Shiza Shahid, amid applause from diplomats, UN officials, human rights activists and civil society representatives in the jampacked ECOSOC chamber.
South Africa’s late anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and former US President Jimmy Carter are among the eminent recipients of the prize, which is bestowed every five years. In 2008, former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was pasthumously conferred the prize for her commitment to women’s rights and strengthening democracy.
UN Human Rights Prize conferred on Malala at impressive ceremony
