Climate activist Thunberg, Cameroon peace activist receive children’s award

A Dutch children's rights organisation has awarded its annual prize to 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg and a 14-year-old peace campaigner from Cameroon.

KidsRights, which has been handing out the prize since 2005, said Friday that it is awarding the International Children's Peace Prize to Thunberg and peace activist Divina Maloum.

Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg was awarded the International Children's Peace Prize on Wednesday, for her work in the struggle against climate change which has resonated with schoolchildren across the world.

Maloum has set up an organisation called Children for Peace that tours schools, mosques and marketplaces in her native Cameroon speaking to children who could fall prey to groups like Boko Haram. The activist also promotes the role of children in peace and sustainable development efforts.

The prizes were handed out by Indian children's rights activist and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi at a ceremony in The Hague. 

Thunberg could not accept her award in person because she is crossing the Atlantic by boat on her way to an international climate conference in Madrid. German climate activist Luisa-Marie Neubauer picked up Thunberg's prize on her behalf.

The children's peace prize is linked to a $110,000 grant which is invested in projects linked to the winners' causes.

Previous winners of the award include Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani schoolgirl who campaigned for girls' right to education, and the students behind the March For Our Lives in the aftermath of last year’s deadly mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.