Part I
My dear children of the world ... Your Majesties,
Your Royal Highnesses, Excellencies, distinguished
members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, dear
brother Tom Harkin, brothers and sisters, and my
dear daughter Malala.
From this podium of peace and humanity, I am
deeply honoured to recite a mantra from the ancient
texts of wisdom, Vedas. This mantra carries a prayer,
an aspiration and a resolve that has the potential to
liberate humanity from all man-made crises.
Let’s walk together. In the pursuit of global
progress, not a single person should be left out or
left behind in any corner of the world, from East to
West, from South to North.
Let’s speak together, let our minds come together!
Learning from the experiences of our ancestors, let
us together create knowledge for all that benefits all.
I bow to my late parents, to my motherland
India, and to the mother earth.
With a warm heart I recall how thousands of
times, I have been liberated, each time I have freed
a child from slavery. In the first smile of freedom
on their beautiful faces, I see the Gods smiling.
I give the biggest credit of this honour to my
movement’s Kaalu Kumar, Dhoom Das and Adarsh
Kishore from India and Iqbal Masih from Pakistan
who made the supreme sacrifice for protecting the
freedom and dignity of children. I humbly accept this
award on behalf of all such martyrs, my fellow
activists across the world and my countrymen.
My journey from the great land of Lord Buddha,
Guru Nanak and Mahatma Gandhi; India to Norway
is a connect between the two centres of global peace
and brotherhood, ancient and modern.
Friends, 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 those
children who are left behind and that’s why I have
kept an empty chair here as a reminder.
I have come here only to share the voices and
dreams of our children - because they are all our
children - [gesture to everyone in the audience]. I
have looked into their frightened and exhausted eyes.
I have held their injured bodies and felt their broken
spirits.
Twenty years ago, in the foothills of the
Himalayas, I met a small, skinny child labourer. He
asked me: “Is the world so poor that it cannot give
me a toy and a book, instead of forcing me to take
a gun or a tool?”
I met with a Sudanese child-soldier. He was
kidnapped by an extremist militia. As his first training
lesson, he was forced to kill his friends and family.
He asked me: “What is my fault?”
Friends, all the great religions teach us to care
for our children. Jesus said: “Let the children come
to me; do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God
belongs to them.” The Holy Quran says: “Kill not
your children because of poverty.”
Friends! There is no greater violence than to
deny the dreams of our children. Therefore ... I refuse
to accept that all the temples and mosques and
churches and prayer houses have no place for the
dreams of our children.
I refuse to accept that the world is so poor, when
just one week of global military expenditure can
bring all the children to classrooms.
I refuse to accept that all the laws and
constitutions, police and judges are unable to protect
our children.
I refuse to accept that the shackles of slavery
can ever be stronger than the quest for freedom. I
REFUSE TO ACCEPT here. My only aim in life is that every child is free
to be a child,
- free to grow and develop,
- free to eat, sleep, and see daylight,
- free to laugh and cry,
- free to play and learn,
- free to go to school, and above all,
- free to dream.
I have the privilege of working with many
courageous people who have the same aim. We have
never given up against any threat or attack and we
never will.
We have made progress in the last couple of
decades. We have reduced the number of out-of-
school children by half. We have reduced the number
of child labourers by a third. We have reduced child
mortality and malnutrition, and we have prevented
millions of child deaths.
But, let us make no mistake, great challenges
still remain.
Friends! The biggest challenge or biggest crisis
knocking on the doors of humankind is fear and
intolerance.
We have utterly failed our children in imparting
an education. An education that gives the meaning
and objective of life. An education that gives a sense
of global citizenship among the youth.
I am afraid that the day is not very far away
when the cumulative result of this failure, will
culminate in an unprecedented violence, and that will
be suicidal for humankind.
Rights, security, hope can only be restored
through education.
Young people like Malala ... I’ve started calling
her my daughter Malala not just Malala ... So my
daughter Malala and other daughters including
Kayanat.. in fact.. two Kayanats, and Shazia, and
the daughters from Africa, and from all over the
world. They are rising up and choosing peace over violence, tolerance over extremism, and courage over
fear.
The solutions are emerging. But these solutions
cannot be found in the deliberations in conferences
alone, and cannot be found in prescriptions from a
distance.
They lie in small groups and local organisations
and individuals, who are confronting with the
problem every day. Even if they remain
unacknowledged, unrecognised and unknown to the
world the solution are with them.
Part II
We can do it ...
You may ask that - what can one person do? I
would recall a story of my childhood: A heavy fire
had broken out in the forest. All the animals were
running away, including lion, the king of the forest.
Suddenly, then he saw a tiny bird rushing towards
the fire. He asked the bird, “What are you doing?”
To the lion’s surprise, the bird replied “I am going
to extinguish the fire.” The lion laughed and said,
“How can you do it keeping just one drop of water,
in your beak?” The bird was adamant, and she said,
“I am doing my bit.”
Eighteen years ago, millions of individuals
marched across the globe. And demanded a new
international law for the abolition of worst form of
child labour, and it has happened, we did it, millions
of individuals did it.
Friends! We live in an age of rapid globalisation.
We are connected through high-speed Internet. We
exchange our goods and services in one single global
market. Thousands of flights every day connect us
from one corner to another corner of the globe. But
there is one serious disconnect and there is a lack
of compassion. Let us inculcate and transform these
individuals’ compassion into a global compassion.
Let us globalise compassion.
Mahatma Gandhi said, “If we are to teach real
peace in this world... we shall have to begin with the children.” I humbly add, let us unite the world
through the compassion for our children.
I ask - Whose children are they who stitch
footballs, yet never played with one?
Whose children are they who harvest cocoa, yet
have never tasted chocolate?
Whose children are they who are dying of Ebola?
Whose children are they who are kidnapped and
held hostage?
They are all our children.
I remember an eight-year-old girl we rescued
from intergenerational forced labour from stone
quarries. When she was sitting in my car right after
her rescue, she asked me: “Why did you not come
earlier?”
Her angry question still shakes me – and has the
power to shake the whole world. Her question is for
all of us. What are we doing? What are we waiting
for? How many girls will we allow to go without
rescue?
Children are questioning our inaction and
watching our actions.
We need collective actions with a sense of
urgency.
Every single minute matters, every single child
matters, every single childhood matters.
Therefore, I challenge the passivity and pessimism
surrounding our children. I challenge this culture of
silence and this culture of passivity, this culture of
neutrality.
I call upon all the governments, intergovernmental
agencies, businesses, faith leaders, workers, teachers
and NGOs, and each one of us, to put an end to all
forms of violence against children. Slavery, trafficking,
child marriages, child labour, sexual abuse, and
illiteracy these things have no place in any civilised
society.
Friends, we can do this. Governments must make
child -friendly policies, and invest in education and young people. Businesses must be more responsible,
accountable and open to innovative partnerships.
Intergovernmental agencies must work together to
accelerate action. Global civil society must rise above
the business-as-usual and fragmented agendas. Faith
leaders and institutions, and all of us must stand with
our children.
We must be bold, we must be ambitious, and
we must have the will. We must keep our promises.
Over fifty years ago, on the first day of my
school, I met a cobbler boy, my age sitting outside
the gate of my school. I asked my teachers: “Why
is he working outside? Why is he not with us in the
school?” My teachers had no answer. One day, I
gathered the courage to ask the boys’ father. He said:
“Sir, I have never thought about it. We are born to
work.”
His answer made me angry. It still makes me
angry.
As a child, I had a vision of tomorrow. A vision
of that cobbler boy sitting with me in my classroom.
Now, that tomorrow has become TODAY.
I am TODAY, and you are TODAY. TODAY it
is time for every child to have a right to life, right
to freedom, right to health, right to education, right
to safety, right to dignity, right to equality, and right
to peace.
TODAY, beyond the darkness, I see the smiling
faces of our children in the blinking stars. TODAY,
in every wave of every ocean, I see my children are
playing and dancing. TODAY, in every plant, in
every tree, and mountain, I see our children growing
freely with dignity.
Friends, I want you to see and feel this TODAY
inside you.
My dear sisters and brothers, as I said many
interesting things are happening today. May I please
request you to put your hand close to your heart -
close your eyes and feel the child inside you?
I am sure you can - Now, listen to that child.
Listen please.
Today, I see thousands of Mahatma Gandhis,
Nelson Mandelas and Martin Luther Kings calling
on us.
Let us democratise knowledge. Let us universalise
justice. Together, let us globalise compassion!
I call upon you in this room, and all across the
world. I call for a march from exploitation to
education, I call for a march from poverty to shared
prosperity, a march from slavery to liberty, and a
march from violence to peace.
Let us march from ignorance to awakening. Let
us march from darkness to light. Let us march from
mortality to divinity.
Let us march!
- (Nobel Acceptance Speech by Kailash Satyarthi)