Meet the winners and finalist of this year's Peace Prize

KidsRights patron Archbishop Desmond Tutu announced the finalists and winners of the International Children’s Peace Prize 2019! These children are all remarkable changemakers with amazing actions and impact.

The three finalists are:

• Greta Thunberg (16) from Sweden fights for the environment.
On Friday, August 20th 2018, Greta started a lone school strike Fridays for Future, which then grew into a worldwide movement. She has mobilized over 1.4 million children, across all regions of the world, to follow her example and strike for climate justice and the living planet. Greta, together with 15 others, filed a lawsuit against Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey as high carbon polluting countries, for violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

• Divina Stella Maloum (15) from Cameroon fights for peace.
After learning about the terror children in Cameroon face, Divina started the program called ‘I am standing up for peace’ when she was only 11 years old and then the movement Children for Peace (C4P) to reinforce child participation in peacebuilding and sustainable development. Through her actions, she urged decision makers, religious and traditional rulers to contribute more effectively to solving conflicts and to involve children in the process. At such a young age, she has already engaged 7000 children in her activities.

• Iftekhar Ahmed (17) from Bangladesh fights for children with disabilities.
Learning from a young age how inaccessible and expensive resources for blind people are, Iftekhar was motivated to create a technology that can help the blind with their education. He assembled different pieces of hardware and produced two easy to operate and cheap devices: a Braille Board for 70$ and a Braille Board Lite version for 40$. The boards contain over 10.000 books which help with reading and learning. Iftekhar also created the Blind Eye App, which can be used on a smartphone.

From an impressive 137 applicants from 56 countries, the KidsRights’ Expert Committee selected Divina from Cameroon and Greta from Sweden as winners. Archbishop Tutu, who has been the patron of the International Children’s Peace Prize and KidsRights for more than a decade, said in a personal message to the winners: “I am in awe of you. Your powerful message is amplified by your youthful energy and unshakable belief that children can, no must, improve their own futures. You are true change-makers who have demonstrated most powerfully that children can move the world.”

The International Children’s Peace Prize 2019 will be awarded on November 20th in the Hall of Knights in The Hague, The Netherlands, by 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi.

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