International Personalities

The great persons who have made a great contribution to international peace, understanding, discovery or development are called international personalities.

Kailash Satyarthi

He is a renowned Indian child rights activist and the winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. He is the founder of an organization dedicated towards the eradication of child labor and rehabilitation of the rescued former child workers. Child labor is a major problem in India where millions of young children are engaged in various forms of work and not getting education. Satyarthi has been working as a children’s rights activist from the past many years and has liberated over 80,000 child laborers since 1980. He formed the Save Childhood Movement to create awareness about this social evil and to rescue children from labor. He has been honored with several awards for his relentless humanitarian work, including the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 which he shares with the Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzay.

 Life

• He studied electrical engineering in a Bhopal college and earned a post-graduate diploma in high-voltage engineering.
• After his graduation he began working as an engineer.
• He wanted to help people, especially the poor children who worked as laborers and he quit his job for this cause.
• He started a journal called ‘The Struggle Shall Continue’ in 1980 in order to create awareness about the problem of child labor.
• To tackle this problem, he formed the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), a movement dedicated towards eradication of human trafficking and bonded child labor.
• He worked to educate the society about the evils of child labor and focused the importance of helping the children and providing them a chance to live normal and healthy life.
• The success of the BBA led to the creation of the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS) in 1989.
• Bal Ashram was formed in Rajasthan where the newly-rescued children are taught basic skills.
• In 1998, he led the Global march against child labor. The march was a beginning movement to motivate individuals and organizations to do fight against child labor.
• He worked as a member of the UNESCO’s Education for All and has addressed the U.N.’s General Assembly, International Labor Conference, and U.N. Human Rights Commission.

Awards & Achievements

• He received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1995 for significant contributions he had made to human rights in India.
• Satyarthi, along with Pakistani teenage activist Malala Yousufzai won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education".
• Named Harvard Person of the Year in 2014
• US Defenders of Democracy Award in 2009
• Golden Flag Award (Netherlands) in 1998
• The Aachener International Peace Award (Germany) in 1994

Dr. Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King Jr. is considered to be one of the most important historic figures of America. He struggled to bring about freedom, equality and respect for all in the US.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta. King graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 with a degree in Sociology. He further received a Bachelor's of Divinity in 1951 and then a Ph.D. from Boston College in 1955.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was appointed the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. It was while serving as pastor of the church that Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. This occurred on December 1, 1955. By December 5, 1955, the Montgomery Bus Boycott had begun. During this time, African-Americans refused to ride the public bus system in Montgomery. The boycott lasted 382 days. In the end on December 21, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation on public transportation was illegal. He was made the leader of various protests and was arrested numerous times. He was a part of many nonviolent protests as he helped lead the fight for desegregation and equal rights.

On August 28, 1963, the March on Washington led by King and other Civil Rights Leaders took place. It was the largest demonstration of its kind in Washington, D.C. up to that time and approximately 250,000 demonstrators were involved. It was during this March that King gave his historical "I Have a Dream" speech while speaking from the Lincoln Memorial.

In 1964, he was honored as the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of thirty-five. He gave the entire amount of the prize money to help with the Civil Rights movement. Between 1965 and 1968, King continued with his protest work and fight for Civil Rights. He was actively critic of poverty and supported equal human rights, food, shelter, education, health reach, equal pay, etc. Many powerful people and organizations were angry at King for this. They spread lies and wanted to make people go against King. And one such person who didn’t want King to succeed shot him after a rally. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.

Dr. Martin Luther King had seen a dream of social revolution. He raised voice for end of ethnic divisions and end of discrimination, suppression from white people, equality, freedom and honor, and liberation from violent war. A did this by promoting non-violent social revolution. The whole world still praises his work and considers him to be one of the most influential figures of the last century.