Malala Yousafzai, Kailash Satyarthi Receive Nobel Peace Prize; Malala Hopes To Become Prime Minister

Nobel Peace Prize laureates Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai accepted their awards at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, on Wednesday. The two winners -- from India and Pakistan -- received a gold medal and a diploma each.

Speaking about the two winners the Chairman of the Nobel Committee Thorbjørn Jagland said: "Satyarthi and Malala are precisely the people whom Alfred Nobel in his will calls champions of peace." Jagland said about Yousafzai that "nothing should be further from Islam than shooting at a young girl whose only demand was to go to school.

"Malala Yousafzai’s vision was clear from the start-- girls have a self-evident right to education," he said.

The two winners revealed that they wanted to use the platform not just as an acknowledgement of their achievements but also as a way to renew their campaign.

Satyarthi, after receiving the prize, urged everyone to work toward global progress. "I represent the sounds of silence, the voices of innocence," Satyarthi said. "There is no greater violence than to deny the dreams of our children."

The Pakistani teenager and the Indian child rights campaigner were named as joint winners of the $1.1 million prize in October for "their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.”

Yousafzai, who is the youngest recipient of the prize, said before attending the event that she hopes that one day she would become the prime minister of Pakistan, BBC reported.

"I want to serve my country and my dream is that my country becomes a developed country and I see every child get an education," Yousafzai told BBC on Wednesday.

The 17-year-old activist came into prominence after she survived an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen in October 2012. She was shot in the head after her calls for equal rights for women angered the militants in Pakistan.

Satyarthi came into prominence for his campaigns against child labor. He formed the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement) in 1980. The India-based movement campaigning for the rights of children has so far saved about 80,000 children.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Satyarthi and Yousafzai on his Twitter account.

The award ceremonies are held every year on Dec. 10, marking the anniversary of founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.