Kailash Satyarthi, Malala Yousafzai conferred Nobel Peace Prize

Indian child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi and Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai received the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 at a ceremony held here on Wednesday for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.

This is the first time that an Indian and a Pakistani have jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Speaking at the ceremony, Satyarthi said that he was accepting the award on behalf of the martyrs and activists.

"I bow to my late parents, my homeland India, and to mother earth. I remember all the kids who I have freed," said Satyarthi.

"The Nobel Committee has generously invited me to present a lecture. Respectfully, I am unable to do that. Because I am representing here the sound of silence, the cry of innocence and the face of invisibility. I represent millions of children who are left behind. And that's why I have kept an empty chair as a reminder," added the child rights activist.

Satyarthi, who was accompanied by his family members, also recalled his experience with the unprivileged people and said there is no greater violence than to deny the dreams of children.

"The single aim of my life is that every child is: free to be a child, free to grow and develop, free to eat, sleep, see daylight, free to laugh and cry, free to play, free to learn, free to go to school, and above all, free to dream," he said.

The Nobel Peace Prize is an international prize which is awarded annually by the Norwegian Nobel Committee according to guidelines laid down in Alfred Nobel's will.

The Peace Prize is one of five prizes that have been awarded annually since 1901 under the auspices of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm for outstanding contributions in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.