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Jeffery Shaun King is an American writer, civil rights activist and co-founder of Real Justice PAC. King uses social media to promote social justice causes, including the Black Lives Matter movement. King was raised in Kentucky and received his... Wikipedia

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds. Jeffery Shaun King is an American writer, civil rights activist and co-founder of Real Justice PAC. King uses social media to promote social justice causes, including the Black Lives Matter movement. King was raised in Kentucky and received his...

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Iqbal Masih, Pakistan, received The World's Children's Honorary Award 2000 posthumously, for his struggle for the rights of debt slave children. Iqbal became a debt slave at an early age, for the owner of a carpet factory who then sold him on.

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The life of Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more commonly known as 'Mahatma' (meaning 'Great Soul') was born in Porbandar, Gujarat, in North West India, on 2nd October 1869, into a Hindu Modh family. His father was the Chief Minister of Porbandar, and his mother's religious devotion meant that his upbringing was infused with the Jain pacifist teachings of mutual tolerance, non-injury to living beings and vegetarianism.
Born into a privileged caste, Gandhi was fortunate to receive a comprehensive education, but proved a mediocre student. In May 1883, aged 13, Gandhi was married to Kasturba Makhanji, a girl also aged 13, through the arrangement of their respective parents, as is customary in India. Following his entry into Samaldas College, at the University of Bombay, she bore him the first of four sons, in 1888. Gandhi was unhappy at college, following his parent's wishes to take the bar, and when he was offered the opportunity of furthering his studies overseas, at University College London, aged 18, he accepted with alacrity, starting there in September 1888.

Gandhi in South Africa

Determined to adhere to Hindu principles, which included vegetarianism as well as alcohol and chastity he found London restrictive initially, but once he had found kindred spirits he flourished, and pursued the philosophical study of religions, including Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and others, having professed no particular interest in religion up until then. Following admission to the English Bar, and his return to India, he found work difficult to come by and, in 1893, accepted a year's contract to work for an Indian firm in Natal, South Africa.

Although not yet enshrined in law, the system of ' apartheid' was very much in evidence in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century. Despite arriving on a year's contract, Gandhi spent the next 21 years living in South Africa, and railed against the injustice of racial segregation. On one occasion he was thrown from a first class train carriage, despite being in possession of a valid ticket. Witnessing the racial bias experienced by his countrymen served as a catalyst for his later activism, and he attempted to fight segregation at all levels. He founded a political movement, known as the Natal Indian Congress, and developed his theoretical belief in peaceful civil protest into a tangible political stance, when he opposed the introduction of registration for all Indians, within South Africa, via non-cooperation with the relevant civic authorities.

Peaceful disobedience

On his return to India in 1916, Gandhi developed his practice of peaceful civic disobedience still further, raising awareness of oppressive practices in Bihar, in 1918, which saw the local populace oppressed by their largely British masters. He also encouraged oppressed villagers to improve their own circumstances, leading peaceful strikes and protests. His fame spread, and he became widely referred to as 'Mahatma' or 'Great Soul'.

Growing fame

As his fame spread, so his political influence increased: by 1921 he was leading the Indian National Congress, and reorganising the party's constitution around the principle of 'Swaraj', or complete political independence from the British. He also instigated a boycott of British goods and institutions, and his encouragement of mass civil disobedience led to his arrest, on 10th March 1922, and trial on sedition charges, for which he served 2 years, of a 6-year prison sentence.

The Indian National Congress began to splinter during his incarceration, and he remained largely out of the public eye following his release from prison in February 1924, returning four years later, in 1928, to campaign for the granting of 'dominion status' to India by the British. When the British introduced a tax on salt in 1930, he famously led a 250-mile march to the sea to collect his own salt. Recognising his political influence nationally, the British authorities were forced to negotiate various settlements with Gandhi over the following years, which resulted in the alleviation of poverty, granted status to the 'untouchables', enshrined rights for women, and led inexorably to Gandhi's goal of 'Swaraj': political independence from Britain.

Assassination attempts

In total Gandhi suffered six known attempts on his life. The first attempt came on 25th June 1934, when he was in Pune delivering a speech, together with his wife, Kasturba. Travelling in a motorcade of two cars, they were in the second car, which was delayed by the appearance of a train at a railway level crossing, causing the two vehicles to separate. When the first vehicle arrived at the speech venue, a bomb was thrown at the car, which exploded and injured several people. No investigations were carried out at the time, and no arrests were made, although many attribute the attack to Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fundamentalist implacably opposed to Gandhi's peaceful acceptance and tolerance of all religions, which he felt compromised the supremacy of the Hindu religion. Godse was the person responsible for the final successful attemp t in January 1948, 14 years later.

Arrest

During the first years of the Second World War, Gandhi's mission to achieve independence from Britain reached its zenith: he saw no reason why Indians should sacrifice their lives for British sovereignty, in other parts of the world, when they were subjugated at home. This period saw the worst instances of civil uprising under his direction, through his 'Quit India' movement. As a result, he was arrested on 9th August 1942, and held for two years at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. In February 1944, 3 months before his release, his wife Kasturbai passed away in the same prison.

May 1944, the time of his release from prison, saw the second attempt made on his life, this time certainly led by Nathuram Godse, although the attempt was fairly half-hearted. When word reached Godse that Gandhi was staying in a hill station near Pune, recovering from his prison ordeal, he organised a group of like-minded individuals who descended on the area, and mounted a vocal anti-Gandhi protest. When invited to speak to Gandhi, Godse declined, but he attended a prayer meeting later that day, where he rushed towards Gandhi, brandishing a dagger and shouting anti-Gandhi slogans. He was overpowered swiftly by fellow worshippers, and came nowhere near achieving his goal. Godse was not prosecuted at the time.

Four months later, in September 1944, Godse led a group of Hindu activist demonstrators who accosted Gandhi at a train station, on his return from political talks. Godse was again found to be in possession of a dagger that, although not drawn, was assumed to be the means by which he would again seek to attack Gandhi. It was officially regarded as the third attempt, by the commission set up to investigate Gandhi's death in 1948.

The partition of India

The British plan to partition what had been British-ruled India, into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India, was vehemently opposed by Gandhi, who foresaw the problems that would result from the split. Nevertheless, the Congress Party ignored his concerns, and accepted the partition proposals put forward by the British.

The fourth attempt on Gandhi's life took the form of a planned train derailment. On 29th June 1946, a train called the 'Gandhi Special', carrying him and his entourage, was derailed near Bombay, by means of boulders, which had been piled up on the tracks. Since the train was the only one scheduled at that time, it seems likely that the intended target of derailment was Gandhi himself. He was not injured in the accident. At a prayer meeting after the event Gandhi is quoted as saying:

"I have not hurt anybody nor do I consider anybody to be my enemy, I can't understand why there are so many attempts on my life. Yesterday's attempt on my life has failed. I will not die just yet; I aim to live till the age of 125."

Sadly, he had only eighteen months to live.

Placed under increasing pressure, by his political contemporaries, to accept Partition as the only way to avoid civil war in India, Gandhi reluctantly concurred with its political necessity, and India celebrated its Independence Day on 15th August 1947. Keenly recognising the need for political unity, Gandhi spent the next few months working tirelessly for Hindu-Muslim peace, fearing the build-up of animosity between the two fledgling states, showing remarkable prescience, given the turbulence of their relationship over the following half-century.

Unfortunately, his efforts to unite the opposing forces proved his undoing. He championed the paying of restitution to Pakistan for lost territories, as outlined in the Partition agreement, which parties in India, fearing that Pakistan would use the payment as a means to build a war arsenal, had opposed. He began a fast in support of the payment, which Hindu radicals, Nathuram Godse among them, viewed as traitorous. When the political effect of his fast secured the payment to Pakistan, it secured with it the fifth attempt on his life.

The assassination of Gandhi

On 20th January a gang of seven Hindu radicals, which included Nathuram Godse, gained access to Birla House, in Delhi, a venue at which Gandhi was due to give an address. One of the men, Madanla Pahwa, managed to gain access to the speaker's podium, and planted a bomb, encased in a cotton ball, on the wall behind the podium. The plan was to explode the bomb during the speech, causing pandemonium, which would give two other gang members, Digambar Bagde and Shankar Kishtaiyya, an opportunity to shoot Gandhi, and escape in the ensuing chaos. The bomb exploded prematurely, before the conference was underway, and Madanla Pahwa was captured, while the others, including Godse, managed to escape.

Pahwa admitted the plot under interrogation, but Delhi police were unable to confirm the participation and whereabouts of Godse, although they did try to ascertain his whereabouts through the Bombay police.

After the failed attempt at Birla House, Nathuram Godse and another of the seven, Narayan Apte, returned to Pune, via Bombay, where they purchased a Beretta automatic pistol, before returning once more to Delhi.

On 30th January 1948, whilst Gandhi was on his way to a prayer meeting at Birla House in Delhi, Nathuram Godse managed to get close enough to him in the crowd to be able to shoot him three times in the chest, at point-blank range. Gandhi's dying words were claimed to be "Hé Rām", which translates as "Oh God", although some witnesses claim he spoke no words at all.

Gandhi's death

When news of Gandhi's death reached the various strongholds of Hindu radicalism, in Pune and other areas throughout India, there was reputedly celebration in the streets. Sweets were distributed publicly, as at a festival. The rest of the world was horrified by the death of a man nominated five times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Godse, who had made no attempt to flee following the shooting, and his co-conspirator, Narayan Apte, were both imprisoned until their trial on 8th November 1949. They were convicted of Gandhi's killing, and both were executed, a week later, at Ambala Jail, on 15th November 1949. The supposed architect of the plot, a Hindu extremist named Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Gandhi's legacy

Gandhi was cremated as per Hindu custom, and his ashes are interred at the Aga Khan's palace in Pune, the site of his incarceration in 1942, and the place his wife had also died.

Gandhi's memorial bears the epigraph "Hé Rām" ("Oh God") although there is no conclusive proof that he uttered these words before death.

Although Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times, he never received it. In the year of his death, 1948, the Prize was not awarded, the stated reason being that "there was no suitable living candidate" that year.

Gandhi's life and teachings have inspired many liberationists of the 20th Century, including Dr. Martin Luther King in the United States, Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko in South Africa, and Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar.

His birthday, 2nd October, is celebrated as a National Holiday in India every year.

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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more commonly known as 'Mahatma' (meaning 'Great Soul') was born in Porbandar, Gujarat, in North West India, on 2nd October 1869, into a Hindu Modh family. His father was the Chief Minister of Porbandar, and his mother's religious devotion meant that his upbringing was infused with the Jain pacifist teachings of mutual tolerance, non-injury to living beings and vegetarianism.

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Who Was Emmeline Pankhurst?

Emmeline Pankhurst was born in England in 1858. In 1903, she founded the Women's Social and Political Union, which used militant tactics to agitate for women's suffrage. Pankhurst was imprisoned many times, but supported the war effort after World War I broke out. Parliament granted British women limited suffrage in 1918. Pankhurst died in 1928, shortly before women were given full voting rights.

Early Life

Emmeline Goulden was born in Manchester, England, on either July 14 or 15, 1898. (Her birth certificate said July 15, but the document wasn't filed until four months after her birth, and Goulden always stated she was born on July 14.)

Goulden, the eldest daughter of 10 children, grew up in a politically active family. Her parents were both abolitionists and supporters of female suffrage; Goulden was 14 when her mother took her to her first women's suffrage meeting. However, Goulden chafed at the fact that her parents prioritized their sons' education and advancement over hers.

Marriage and Political Activism

After studying in Paris, Goulden returned to Manchester, where she met Dr. Richard Pankhurst in 1878. Richard was a lawyer who supported a number of radical causes, including women's suffrage. Though he was 24 years older than Goulden, the two married in December 1879, and Goulden became Emmeline Pankhurst.

Over the next decade, Pankhurst gave birth to five children: daughters Christabel, Sylvia and Adela, and sons Frank (who died in childhood) and Harry. Despite her children and other household responsibilities, Pankhurst remained involved in politics, campaigning for her husband during his unsuccessful runs for Parliament and hosting political gatherings at their home.

"Women are very slow to rouse, but once they are aroused, once they are determined, nothing on earth and nothing in heaven will make women give way; it is impossible."

In 1889, Pankhurst became an early supporter of the Women's Franchise League, which wanted to enfranchise all women, married and unmarried alike (at the time, some groups only sought the vote for single women and widows). Her husband encouraged Pankhurst in these endeavors until his death in 1898.

The WSPU Takes Shape

Coping with straitened circumstances and grief consumed much of Pankhurst's attention for the next several years. However, she retained a passion for women's rights, and in 1903 she decided to create a new women-only group focused solely on voting rights, the Women's Social and Political Union. The WSPU's slogan was "Deeds Not Words."

In 1905, Pankhurst's daughter Christabel and fellow WSPU member Annie Kenney went to a meeting to demand if the Liberal party would support women's suffrage. After a confrontation with the police, both women were arrested. The attention and interest that followed this arrest encouraged Pankhurst to have the WSPU follow a more combative path than other suffrage groups.

At first the WSPU's "militancy" consisted of buttonholing politicians and holding rallies. Still, following these tactics led to members of Pankhurst's group being arrested and imprisoned (Pankhurst herself was first sent behind bars in 1908). The Daily Mail soon dubbed Pankhurst's group "suffragettes," as opposed to the "suffragists," who also wanted women to be able to vote in the United Kingdom, but who followed less confrontational channels.

Rise of the Suffragettes

Over the next few years, Pankhurst would encourage WSPU members to rein in their demonstrations when it seemed possible that a bill on women's suffrage might move forward. But when the group was disappointed-as in 1910 and 1911, when Conciliation Bills that included women's suffrage failed to advance-protests would escalate. By 1913, militant actions by WSPU members included window-breaking, vandalizing public art and arson.

"We were called militant, and we were quite willing to accept the name. We were determined to press this question of the enfranchisement of women to the point where we were no longer to be ignored by the politicians."

Throughout these protests, suffragettes were arrested, but in 1909 the women had begun to engage in hunger strikes while in prison. Though this resulted in violent force-feedings, the hunger strikes also led to early release for many suffragettes. When Pankhurst was given a nine-month sentence in 1912 for throwing a rock at the prime minister's residence, she too embarked on a hunger strike. Spared from being forcibly fed, she was soon freed.

Seeking to circumvent the hunger strikes, in 1913 the Prisoners' Temporary Discharge for Ill Health Act was enacted. The law said that prisoners who were released for health reasons could be rearrested and taken back to prison once they'd recovered. It became known as the "Cat and Mouse Act," with suffragette "mice" being pursued by the authorities.

"We shall fight against the condition of affairs so long as life is in us."

In 1913, after an incendiary device went off in an unoccupied house being built for the chancellor of the exchequer, David Lloyd George, Pankhurst received a sentence of three years of penal servitude for inciting the crime. She was released after a hunger strike, but the Cat and Mouse Act led to a series of rearrests and releases-during one furlough, Pankhurst proceeded to the United States for a fundraising and lecture tour-that continued into 1914. But everything changed with the arrival of World War I.

World War I and the Vote

Feeling that suffragettes needed to make sure they had a country to vote in, Pankhurst decided to call for a halt to militancy and demonstrations. The government released all WSPU prisoners, and Pankhurst encouraged women to join the war effort and fill factory jobs so that men could fight on the front.

"We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers."

The contributions of women during wartime helped convince the British government to grant them limited voting rights-for those who met a property requirement and were 30 years of age (the voting age for men was 21)-with the Representation of the People Act of 1918. Later that year, another bill gave women the right to be elected to Parliament.

Later Years

Though all her daughters had been members of the WSPU at some point, Pankhurst was only able to celebrate the achievement of (limited) suffrage with Christabel, her favorite. As a pacifist, Sylvia had disagreed with Pankhurst's attitude toward the war, while Adela had moved to Australia.

Pankhurst still desired universal women's suffrage, but her politics changed focus after the war. She worried about the rise of Bolshevism and eventually became a member of the Conservative Party. Pankhurst even ran for a seat in Parliament as a Conservative, but her campaign was disrupted by ill health (exacerbated by the public revelation that Sylvia had given birth to an illegitimate child). Pankhurst was 69 when she died in London on June 14, 1928.

Pankhurst did not live to see it, but on July 2, 1928, Parliament gave women voting rights on par with those of their male counterparts.

Voting Rights Centennial

On February 6, 2018, the U.K. commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act with a speech by Prime Minister Theresa May and a series of public exhibitions. However, some felt the tributes weren't enough, with Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn among those calling for official pardons for more than 1,000 suffragettes imprisoned for their activism a century earlier.

Emmeline Pankhurst's great-granddaughter Helen also surfaced in the news for the release of her book, Deeds Not Words. An activist in the mold of her famed ancestor, Helen Pankhurst expressed concern that U.S. President Donald Trump was using his position to reverse the tide of hard-fought progress for women: "I think it's really sad that in 2018 we have as the president of apparently the most powerful place in the world someone who has done the things that he has done and speaks the way that he does," she said.

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On the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote in the U.K., equality campaigners are calling for the pardon of Emmeline Pankhurst and other suffragettes who were imprisoned fighting for women's suffrage. Meanwhile, Pankhurst's great-granddaughter warned President Trump may damage men's perception of women.

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L'Ouverture, Toussaint (1742-1803) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed

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An Online Reference Guide to African American History

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Sitting Bull - Native American History - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of Sitting Bull, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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Hace un año, Malala Yousafzai recibió un disparo en la cabeza cuando regresaba en autobús de la escuela a su casa en la ciudad de Mingora, en el noroeste de Pakistán. El motivo del ataque perpetrado por el Talibán era claro: esta joven de 16 años se había atrevido a levantar su voz para defender el derecho a la educación de las niñas.

El mundo reaccionó con horror. Su padre, Ziauddin Yousafzai, se preparó para lo peor. Mientras acompañaba a su hija en el helicóptero que la trasladaba de urgencia desde el Valle de Swat a un hospital militar en Peshawar, le pedía a sus familiares que iniciaran los preparativos para el funeral.

Pero después de varias semanas en cuidados intensivos Malala sobrevivió. Y aunque las balas del Talibán cambiaron su vida para siempre, no hicieron mella en su determinación de luchar para que las niñas en su país puedan tener acceso a una educación gratuita y obligatoria.

En su primera entrevista en profundidad desde el ataque, Malala conversó con la BBC sobre la necesidad de entablar un diálogo con los extremistas como el único camino para alcanzar la paz y recordó en detalle lo ocurrido el 9 de octubre.

¿Quién es Malala?

Mi madre me dijo: 'ahora que estás creciendo y la gente te conoce, no debes ir caminando, debes ir en carro o en autobús para estar más segura'
Malala

Aquel 9 de octubre por la tarde Malala salió de la escuela como cualquier otro día y se subió al autobús que la esperaba a la salida. El viaje era corto, un camino que se podía hacer fácilmente a pie: había que pasar un descampado donde los niños suelen jugar al criquet y luego bordear la rivera del río hasta llegar a la casa.

"Mi madre me dijo: 'Ahora que estás creciendo y la gente te conoce, no debes ir caminando, debes ir en carro o en autobús para estar más segura'", recuerda Malala.

Iba sentada, charlando con su amiga Moniba, pensando en los exámenes que había rendido y en los que tenía aún por delante, cuando notó algo inusual. La carretera parecía desierta.

Momentos más tarde, a unos noventa metros de la escuela, dos hombres pararon al autobús y preguntaron quién era Malala. Ella no se acuerda de cómo eran, pero su amiga Moniba sí. Parecían dos estudiantes universitarios, dice.

Moniba pensó que eran dos periodistas que querían entrevistar a su amiga famosa. Aunque Malala escribía un blog anónimo para el Servicio Urdu de la BBC donde hablaba de sus miedos y esperanzas de poder seguir yendo a la escuela, no dudaba en expresar públicamente sus opiniones sobre el derecho de las mujeres a la educación y había participado en un programa de televisión nacional en el que habló con valentía sobre el tema.

Pero rápidamente Moniba se dio cuenta de que se trataba de otra cosa: la mirada de Malala traslucía temor.

Los hombres comenzaron a disparar. Las dos niñas que estaban sentadas al otro lado de Malala -Shazia Ramzan y Kainat Riaz- también resultaron heridas. "Escuché los disparos y luego vi mucha sangre en la cabeza de Malala", rememora Kainat. "Cuando vi toda esa sangre sobre Malala, me desmayé".

Pasaron diez minutos hasta que alguien se acercó a ayudar las niñas aterrorizadas.

(En 2012) La vida seguía su curso normal para la gente normal. Pero para quienes expresaban su opinión, era un momento peligroso
Malala

En ese momento, nadie se hubiese imaginado que el Talibán podría atacar a una niña. Es cierto que hubo varios incidentes en los que el Talibán quiso darles una lección a las mujeres. A principios de 2009 una bailarina acusada de inmoralidad fue ejecutada.

Pero en 2012, los peores días del Talibán ya habían pasado en la región de Swat. Un operativo militar de grandes proporciones había despejado a la mayoría de los militantes y los que permanecían allí, mantenían un perfil bajo.

"La vida seguía su curso normal para la gente normal. Pero para quienes expresaban su opinión, era un momento peligroso", dice Malala.

Y ella no se quedaba callada.

Cumpleaños en la ONU

Blog de Malala, 3 de octubre de 2009

Ayer tuve un sueño terrible en el estaba el Talibán y había helicópteros militares. He tenido varios sueños así desde el inicio del operativo militar en Swat.

Mi madre me hizo el desayuno y me fui a la escuela. Me dio miedo ir porque el Talibán lanzó un edicto en el que le prohibe a las niñas ir a la escuela. Sólo vinieron a clase 11 de las 27 alumnas.

El número bajó por el edicto del Talibán. Mis tres amigas se fueron por esta razón con sus familias a Peshawar, Lahore y Rawalpindi.

Después del incidente y de ser hospitalizada en Peshawar primero y luego en Islamabad, Malala despertó de un coma inducido a mediados de octubre en Birmingham, Inglaterra.

"Abrí los ojos y lo primero que vi fue que estaba en un hospital. Veía médicos, enfermeras. Le agradecí a Dios por haberme dado una nueva vida".

Contra todo pronóstico, su recuperación fue asombrosa, un tributo no sólo a la calidad del cuidado que recibió sino, según dicen los médicos, a su propia resistencia y determinación.

Tras una serie de operaciones para restituir su capacidad auditiva en uno de sus oídos y para reconectar un nervio facial que le devolviese el movimiento a una parte de su rostro, Malala dio un paso crucial que demostró en qué medida había superado el incidente del autobús.

Un niño, un maestro, un libro, un lápiz pueden cambiar el mundo
Malala

Malala celebró su 16º cumpleaños con un discurso frente a una asamblea de jóvenes en la sede central de Naciones Unidas en Nueva York.

"Un niño, un maestro, un libro, un lápiz pueden cambiar el mundo", dijo ante una multitud que la ovacionó de pie.

"Cuando vi a 400 jóvenes de más de 100 países me dije: no sólo le estoy hablando a la gente de Estados Unidos y otros países. Le estoy hablando a todas las personas del mundo".
Lea: 100 mujeres, la mitad del mundo toma la palabra
Y su discurso no se ciñe sólo a la educación. En la entrevista con la BBC, Malala enfatizó la importancia de dialogar con el Talibán para alcanzar la paz.

"La mejor forma de resolver los problemas y luchar contra la guerra es a través del diálogo", dijo.

"Eso no es un tema para mi, es el trabajo del gobierno... y es también el trabajo de Estados Unidos".

Una voz amplificada por el Talibán

En menos de un año, la niña del Valle de Swat se convirtió en un fenómeno global. Es más, se especula que puede ser la ganadora del Premio Nobel de la Paz que se anuncia este viernes en Estocolmo.

Fechas clave

1997: Nació en el Valle de Swat, Pakistán

2009: Escribió un blog anónimo para la BBC sobre la vida bajo el Talibán

2009/ 2010: Su identidad fue revelada en entrevistas televisivas y en un documental

2011: Nominada al Premio Internacional de la Paz para los niños

2012: Intento de asesinato del Talibán

2013: Nominada al Premio Nobel de la Paz

Sin embargo, pese a su fama, Malala sigue pensando en volver a Pakistán e ingresar en la arena política.

Muchos temen que regresar comprometa su seguridad. Otros ven con ojos críticos la atención que está generando a su alrededor, especialmente en Occidente.

También hay quienes creen que cuanto más tiempo pase fuera de su país, más difícil será que la reconozcan allí como una verdadera paquistaní y que no la identifiquen con Occidente.

Pero a Malala no parecen importarle las críticas. Todos tienen derecho a expresar sus sentimientos, dice y "yo tengo derecho a decir lo que quiero". "Quiero hacer algo por la educación, ese es mi único deseo".
La historia de Malala forma parte de nuestra temporada especial titulada "100 Mujeres", con la cual la BBC busca arrojar luz sobre la vida de las mujeres en el siglo XXI y ofrecerles a ellas un espacio de mayor representación. Vea: 100 mujeres, la mitad del mundo habla
Críticas aparte, lo cierto es que Malala es una joven singular, con una sabiduría poco frecuente en niñas de su edad, sensible y centrada. En sus pocos años ha experimentado lo peor y lo mejor que pueden ofrecer los seres humanos, tanto de parte de los médicos que se ocuparon de ella como de las miles y miles de personas que le brindaron su apoyo.

La voz de la niña que el Talibán trató de silenciar se amplificó hasta llegar a lugares inimaginables.

Cuando la BBC le preguntó, qué creía que el Talibán había logrado ese día, Malala respondió con una sonrisa.

"Creo que estarán arrepentidos de haberle disparado a Malala. Ahora a ella", dice refiriéndose a sí misma en tercera persona, "la escuchan en cada rincón del mundo".

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La increíble historia de Malala, la niña que el Talibán no quería que estudiara

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Hace un año, Malala Yousafzai recibió un disparo en la cabeza cuando regresaba en autobús de la escuela a su casa en la ciudad de Mingora, en el noroeste de Pakistán. El motivo del ataque perpetrado por el Talibán era claro: esta joven de 16 años se había atrevido a levantar su voz para defender el derecho a la educación de las niñas.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.

In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.
Selected bibliography
Adams, Russell, Great Negroes Past and Present, pp. 106-107. Chicago, Afro-Am Publishing Co., 1963.

Bennett, Lerone, Jr., What Manner of Man: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Chicago, Johnson, 1964.

I Have a Dream: The Story of Martin Luther King in Text and Pictures. New York, Time Life Books, 1968.

King, Martin Luther, Jr., The Measure of a Man. Philadelphia. The Christian Education Press, 1959. Two devotional addresses.

King, Martin Luther, Jr., Strength to Love. New York, Harper & Row, 1963. Sixteen sermons and one essay entitled "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence."

King, Martin Luther, Jr., Stride toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. New York, Harper, 1958.

King, Martin Luther, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience. New York, Harper & Row, 1968.

King, Martin Luther, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? New York, Harper & Row, 1967.

King, Martin Luther, Jr., Why We Can't Wait. New York, Harper & Row, 1963.

"Man of the Year", Time, 83 (January 3, 1964) 13-16; 25-27.

"Martin Luther King, Jr.", in Current Biography Yearbook 1965, ed. by Charles Moritz, pp. 220-223. New York, H.W. Wilson.

Reddick, Lawrence D., Crusader without Violence: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York, Harper, 1959.

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished inNobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

* Note from Nobelprize.org: This biography uses the word "Negro". Even though this word today is considered inappropriate, the biography is published in its original version in view of keeping it as a historical document.

To cite this section
MLA style: Martin Luther King Jr. - Biography. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Sat. 23 Sep 2023. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/biographical/>

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The Nobel Peace Prize 1964 was awarded to Martin Luther King Jr. "for his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population"

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The Philippines' new President Rodrigo Duterte must fulfil his inauguration pledge to uphold the country's commitment to international law and lead a break with the country's poor human rights record, Amnesty International said today.

"President Duterte has been elected on a mandate to uphold the rule of law. It is encouraging that he spoke of honouring the Philippines' obligations under international law in his inauguration speech. But now he is in power, he needs to lend substance to those words and break with his earlier rhetoric," said Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International's Director for South East Asia and the Pacific.

Throughout his election campaign, President Duterte made inflammatory remarks that, if translated into policy, would mark a sharp deterioration in the already problematic human rights situation in the Philippines.

President Duterte's promises to adhere to the rule of law and [must be] translated into actual policy and implemented in practice.

Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International's Director for South East Asia and the Pacific

Since winning the presidential election, President Duterte triggered widespread alarm by calling for the restoration of the death penalty, vowing to preside over a wave of extrajudicial executions, threatening journalists, and intimidating human rights defenders.

This is in a context where a climate of impunity for human rights violations prevails in the Philippines, including for torture and other ill-treatment by the police. Only one police officer has ever been brought to justice under laws criminalising torture, and few have been held accountable for killings of journalists.

"President Duterte's promises to adhere to the rule of law and to Philippines' international obligations mark a welcome change from earlier rhetoric, but it is important that they are not merely issued to placate critics but are translated into actual policy and implemented in practice," said Rafendi Djamin.

The death penalty

Among President Duterte's many troubling positions is his intention to restore the death penalty. Doing so would reverse a decade-long ban in the Philippines on this cruel and irreversible punishment. For this position, the Philippines is a regional leader as it went against the grain of other countries in the region.

President Duterte has said that he intends to apply the death penalty to a range of crimes including offences that do not meet the threshold of "most serious crimes," which is the only category of crimes for which international law allows the death penalty.

"There is no evidence that the death penalty serves as any more of a deterrent than prison. At a time when this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment has been abolished in the majority of the world's countries, reimposing it will set the Philippines in the wrong direction," said Rafendi Djamin.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, regardless of the crime. The organization has additional concerns about deep and structural flaws in the Philippines' criminal justice system, which serve to compound the injustice of the death penalty.

There is no evidence that the death penalty serves as any more of a deterrent than prison. Reimposing it will set the Philippines in the wrong direction.

Rafendi Djamin

A 2014 Amnesty International report, Above the Law: Police Torture in the Philippines documented the widespread use of torture and other ill-treatment to coerce 'confessions'.

Extrajudicial executions

In recent weeks, President Duterte promised large sums of money as rewards to urge people to kill suspected drug smugglers, said that security forces will be allowed to carry out "shoot-to-kill" orders against criminal suspects resisting arrest, and has displayed a callous disregard for killings of journalists.

Summary killings of criminal suspects are extrajudicial executions, which violate both international and Philippines law. The authorities should make clear to the security forces that they will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Security forces may use force only when strictly necessary and to the extent required for carrying their law enforcement duties; they may not use lethal force except when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life. The governments should ensure that those responsible for extrajudicial executions are brought to justice.

"Extrajudicial executions will deliver neither the justice that victims deserve nor the security that people in the Philippines seek. What the Philippines needs is an overhaul of its judicial system to end delays, enhance investigations, ensure that criminal suspects are prosecuted in fair trials, and protect victims and witnesses from threats and reprisals," said Rafendi Djamin.

Safety of journalists

Duterte's disregard for the safety of journalists is striking in a country where seven journalists were killed last year, and more than 150 media workers have been killed with impunity over the past 30 years.

"President Duterte makes full use of his right to freedom of expression. He should respect the fact that others also have this right to write and speak freely, and the authorities must respect and protect their right to do so without fear of imprisonment, threats, or violence," said Rafendi Djamin.

Programme of action

Amnesty International has published a programme of action for the Duterte administration, outlining that the new administration should prioritise putting an end to extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, and secret detention, as well as torture and other ill treatment.

The organisation has also highlighted concerns about abuses by non-state actors and has called for the disbanding and disarmament of private armies, and establishment of control and accountability over the military, police and other state-sponsored forces.

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Philippines: President Duterte must break the cycle of human rights violations

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The Philippines' new President Rodrigo Duterte must fulfil his inauguration pledge to uphold the country's commitment to international law and lead a break with the country's poor human rights record, Amnesty International said today. "President Duterte has been elected on a mandate to uphold the rule of law.

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The Australian Human Rights Commission says in the world of the web, cyber bullying is an abuse of human rights.

Cyber bullying is when a child or teenager is threatened, harassed or humiliated by another child or teenager using the internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones.

Catherine Branson QC, the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, says the damage caused by cyber bullying can last a lifetime.

"Cyber bullying can affect large numbers of people and can intimidate them and in some cases leave them with lasting emotional damage," she said.

"We know that in particular it can affect young people through social networking sites and indeed through their mobiles phones."

So serious is the issue that the Commission has established a partnership with the Child Health Promotion Research Centre at Edith Cowen University to develop a new anti-cyber bullying campaign.

"What we're particularly anxious to do is to partner with real experts in the field and develop a campaign that young people will have been involved in developing from the very beginning, to get a campaign that young people will identify with, that they will understand and that they feel is right for them," Ms Branson said.

Ms Branson hopes the campaign will equip young people with the skills to tackle cyber bullying.

"We hope [to] develop innovative new anti-cyber bullying strategies for young people but we know that there are important things already that can be done - refusing to play the bullying game oneself is important, speaking with your friends that you won't be involved in bullying, you won't re-transmit bullying or harassing messages," she said.

"If someone is being bullied who seeks your help, go with them to someone in authority that can provide the help.

"Simple steps like that can really make a difference."

The Child Health Promotion Research Centre at Edith Cowan University studied the strategies being used by schools, families and students to combat the effects of cyber bullying.

Dr Laura Thomas, a senior researcher with the centre, says young people want to get involved with the program.

"There's a great deal of young people who are bystanders to cyber bullying situations," she said.

"I think that young people are much better at this than we give them credit for. I think they really do want to get involved. It's just that they don't know how to do so.

"So we need to give them strategies, not just about what they need to do but how they can go about it. And they're really motivated when young people themselves come up with those ideas."

The Australian Human Rights Commission hopes the partnership will become a major force in countering the adverse impacts and often irreparable damage caused by cyber bullying.

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Cyber bullying likened to human rights abuse

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The Australian Human Rights Commission says in the world of the web, cyber bullying is an abuse of human rights. Cyber bullying is when a child or teenager is threatened, harassed or humiliated by another child or teenager using the internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones.

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The lives of child miners

Child Miners Speak explores the dirty, dangerous, and degrading lives of more than 50 children, ages 8 to 17, working at an artisanal copper and cobalt mine in the country's Katanga province of the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Artisanal miners use their hands to extract materials, utilizing little technology or machinery. According to the report, an estimated 40% of artisanal mining workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are children.

Artisanal mining is especially treacherous, as it requires plucking stone from loose surface or tunneling, which can lead to deadly rockslides.

What the child laborers say

In the report, the children described the circumstances, impacts, and drivers of their work as miners.

Of the children interviewed by World Vision at the mine site:

19% said they had seen a child die on an artisanal mining site.

87% experienced body pain, and many had been injured.

67% reported frequent or persistent coughing.

Several girls had had genital infections after working waist-deep in acidic water.

Adverse health effects from mining are severe

The impact of the work on a child's health is significant.

"Since working here, I have problems with my skin, body pains, and pain in my eyes," said Jean, an 8-year-old who works alongside his mother at the mine where World Vision's research took place.

The heavy work can permanently damage a growing child's bones and muscles. Minerals mined are often hazardous and exposure to uranium and mercury can have profound health effects.

Falling down open mine shafts, being trapped or injured by collapsing tunnels, and drowning while mining underwater are all serious threats.

World Vision's experience in Katanga echoes the warnings from the International Labor Organization about child health effects of mining:

Children absorb and retain heavy metals in the brain more easily.

Children's enzyme systems are still developing so they are less able to detoxify hazardous substances.

Children breathe faster and more deeply, so they can inhale more airborne pathogens and dust.

Children dehydrate more easily due to their larger skin surface and because of their faster breathing.

'Just scratching the surface'

This research will help World Vision better understand how the Democratic Republic of the Congo government and the international community can support these families and find solutions to child labor in mining.

"This is not a childhood, with no time to play, rest or go on holiday with family," says Bob Kisulya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo national director for World Vision. "This type of hard labor is robbing children of the childhood they have a right to. Given how much artisanal mining there is across the DRC, we believe we are just scratching the surface of the real issues."

How you can help fight child labor

Pray for children trapped in work that puts them in danger or prevents them from attending school. Ask God to protect them from further exploitation so that they may enjoy the physical, mental, and spiritual nurture they need to maximize their potential.

Contact your members of Congress and let them know that you support programs that help prevent child labor around the world.

Give to support World Vision's grassroots work around the world to protect children from child labor and other forms of exploitation, abuse, and violence.

Sponsor a child. By investing in a child's life, you'll help them stay in school. You'll also help to build up their community so that there'll be more job opportunities for them to pursue as adults.

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Child labor: Children reveal horror of working in mines

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Child Miners Speak explores the dirty, dangerous, and degrading lives of more than 50 children, ages 8 to 17, working at an artisanal copper and cobalt mine in the country's Katanga province of the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Artisanal miners use their hands to extract materials, utilizing little technology or machinery.

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China's human rights record has been criticised for years. The UK government has been urged to bring up concerns during a state visit by the Chinese president. But what are the main issues?
The government has frequently imprisoned people who have spoken about politically sensitive topics. In July, there was a crackdown on lawyers who worked on cases involving free speech and abuses of power. Amnesty International says that 245 lawyers and activists have been targeted since July. One of the best known, Li Heping, is still missing.

Amnesty says there needs to be more awareness of cases such as that of Cao Shunli, a human rights activist who died in police detention last year. Her family said that she had been denied medical attention and that they had been refused access to her body. The government has denied any mistreatment, saying that the activist's "lawful rights and interests have been protected in accordance with law".

More recently, a group of feminist activists were detained as they prepared to hand out leaflets and stickers about domestic violence. Five of the women were detained for more than a month. Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo also continues his 11-year jail term for subversion. There have repeated called from other countries for his release. But the Chinese government has responded by saying that it is for China to decide and that "only the 1.3 billion Chinese people have a say on China's human rights".

China is often accused of heavy-handed tactics against protesters. There have been complaints over the aggressive handling of large pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong last year. Amnesty says that eight people remained in detention in September.

Tibet has also seen years of unrest. Human Rights Watch says that seven people set themselves on fire in Tibetan populated areas in 2014 in protest against repressive policies by the authorities. The total number of immolations since 2008 is 140.

Secrecy on Tiananmen Square

Mental health and disabilities
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China's human rights record has been criticised for years. The UK government has been urged to bring up concerns during a state visit by the Chinese president. But what are the main issues? The government has frequently imprisoned people who have spoken about politically sensitive topics.

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Newsela | Young Saudi men help campaign to end women driving ban in kingdom

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The men, mostly young, are helping the women campaign to be allowed to drive. They risk losing their jobs. Their fathers and uncles tell them it is not yet time to let women drive.

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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In Bangladesh, a new report finds, impoverished children are working long hours in violation of that country's labor laws. Children under the age of 14 who've given up school for jobs are toiling an average 64 hours a week, according to a British think tank.

Researchers from the London-based Overseas Development Institute surveyed nearly 3,000 households in the slums of Dhaka. They found children as young as 6 employed full-time and others working up to 100 to 110 hours a week. On average the working children earned less than $2 a day.

"The prevalence of child labor in Bangladesh is worrisome," says Maria Quattri, a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute and one of the authors of the study. Quattri says the majority of girls who are employed are toiling in the garment industry. Boys' jobs are more varied. Some work as day laborers on construction sites or making bricks. Others sell products on the street or work in shops. But 13 percent of the boys also reported working in clothing factories or other parts of the textile industry.

The legal age of employment in Bangladesh is 14, although 12 and 13 year olds are permitted to do what's deemed "light work" for up to 42 hours per week. Light work is not strictly defined but explicitly prohibits children from working all-night shifts or in railways, ports or factories.

Quattri says this survey found that the labor laws are widely ignored. The government doesn't have the labor inspectors or other officials necessary to enforce them. She also says much of the work done by children is off the books in the informal sector, making it harder to regulate.

"So they're mainly working for subcontractors in informal garment factories that produce a part of the product that is then sold to formal businesses. And the formal businesses export the product," she says.

Bangladesh is a densely populated nation of 150 million people at the mouth of the Ganges River. It's made significant progress over the last two decades in cutting its poverty rate from 50 percent of the population down to about a third. But millions of Bangladeshis still live in sprawling slums.

This new report from the Overseas Development Institute shows that child labor remains a significant problem in the South Asian country. Public education is free and compulsory only for elementary school. Quattri says the cost of tuition is one of the main reasons poor families said they sent their 11, 12 and 13 year olds into the workforce instead of school.

This report and others suggest that millions of kids under the age of 14 are working in Bangladesh. The researchers found that the majority of working kids struggled to read the simple sentence "the girl is playing" in Bengali. Many of them couldn't read it at all. Once they start working 60, 80 or a hundred hours a week, Quattri says, it's very hard for them to ever escape these low-wage jobs.

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Study: Child Laborers In Bangladesh Are Working 64 Hours A Week

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In Bangladesh, a new report finds, impoverished children are working long hours in violation of that country's labor laws. Children under the age of 14 who've given up school for jobs are toiling an average 64 hours a week, according to a British think tank.