ALDE Group Nominee Malala Yousafzai wins 25th Sakharov Prize

ALDE Group nominee, Malala Yousafzai has won the 2013 European Parliament Sakharov Prize for freedom. This is a award for achievement in the field of human rights and democracy. Malala Yousafzai is a young Pakistani school girl who was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus in October 2012. Since the attempt on her life, and medical treatment in the UK, she has captured the attention of the world in her fight for access to education for young girls.

ALDE President Guy Verhofstadt is delighted that this nomination received widespread political support in the European Parliament and called Malala Yousafzai 'an inspiration to every man, woman and child''.

He said " It takes an exceptional human being to stand up to a regime such as the Pakistani Talban and when that human being is a young 16 year old girl then that bravery becomes breathtaking. The recent renewed threats to Malala's life have showed that those who tried to harm her are becoming increasingly desperate as the world's attention turns to this exception young woman. She is a most worthy recipient of the Sakharov prize and richly deserves the nomination for the Nobel peace prize".

Sir Graham Watson (UK, Liberal Democrat) who was behind the nomination said "This prize is not just for her but for the millions of other girls and boys worldwide, muslim and non-muslim, who like her have been denied their universal right to education. She now personifies the fight for that right with her 'weapons of books and pens. Education, particularly of girls, is now widely recognised as the most powerful tool we have for world development. Those who seek to deny it on conservative authoritarian grounds are the enemies of freedom and development. If the European Parliament chooses - as I hope it will - to award Malala the 25th Sakharov prize, it will be a great victory for education for all."

Past winners include Nelson Mandela (1988), Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1992), China's Hu Jia (2008) and the activists of the Arab Spring (2011. The ALDE Group has nominated Malala Yousafzai for the Sakharov Prize 2013.