Amnesty confers highest award on Malala

KABUL attack last year.

The London-based rights watchdog also announced American singer, human rights and social justice activist Harry Belafonte as a co-recipient of the Ambassador of Conscience Award for 2013.

In a statement on its website, the organisation said the award would be presented at a ceremony on Tuesday evening at the Mansion House in Dublin, Ireland.

Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty said: “Our two new Ambassadors of Conscience are different from each other in many ways, but they share a dedication to the fight for human rights everywhere and for all.”

In 2012, Malala was severely wounded in an attack, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, in the northwestern Swat valley. The attack came after her 2009 diary for the BBC detailed her frustrations with the Taliban’s edict to shut down all girls’ schools in Pakistan. 

“I am truly honoured to receive this award and would like to take the opportunity to remind everyone that there are many millions of children like me across the world who fight every single day for their right to go to school,” the schoolgirl said.

pr/mud

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