Malala Yousafzai wins EU’s Sakharov Prize 2013

Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived bullet-injury inflicted by the Taliban for championing girls’ education has won theEuropean Union’s (EU) Sakharov Human Rights Prize 2013. Past winners of the Sakharov Prize include South African anti apartheid hero Nelson Mandela and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

The Sakharov Prize

• The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament as a means to honour individuals or organisations who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought.
• The first prize was awarded jointly to South African Nelson Mandela and Russian Anatoly Marchenko. 
• The Sakharov Prize is usually awarded annually on or around December 10, the day on which the United Nations General Assembly ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948,also celebrated as Human Rights Day.

Source - gktoday.in