The launch came in the wake of an attack that killed 14 students at an all girls college in Pakistan. PHOTO: RASHID AJMERI/FILE
The launch came in the wake of an attack that killed 14 students at an all girls college in Pakistan, emphasised Special Envoy Gordon Brown in an op-ed published today in the Huffington Post.
"This, the bloodiest atrocity yet in escalating violence against female students, comes eight months after the attempted assassination of Malala and her two friends, Kainat and Shazia, targeted by terrorists just because they wanted to go to school," Brown wrote.
"That is why today, in advance of Malala Day on July 12, we are launching our worldwide petition to demand that global leaders ensure 57 million out-of-school girls and boys are given the chance of education," he said.
Yousafzai's appearance at UN Headquarters on July 12 will mark her first major public speech since she was shot last October. She will be joined at the UN by hundreds of young people from around the world.
The petition and the UN event are part of an effort to establish universal primary education by December 2015, the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, a set of anti-poverty targets set by UN Member States in a 2000 summit.
In a video statement issued for the petition launch, Yousafzai said that the terrorists, involved in the attack on the girls' school, which UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned over the weekend, were "cowards".
"The innocent girls who died on Saturday have nothing to do with politics and only wanted to empower themselves through education. Obtaining education is every man and woman's birth right and no one is allowed to take away this right from them, "she stressed.
Brown and Yousafzai are supporting the initiative of Secretary-General Ban to accelerate progress towards the UN Global Education First Initiative to put every child in school, improve the quality of learning, and foster global citizenship by the end of 2015.
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@lovePak: She is a symbol for bravery-her own,and all others who are fighting for a cause- the education of women. And the rest of the world doesn't need to show Pakistan backward-you and people like you are doing a good job doing that.
@mwert: Then you know nothing about her!!!!! And your words say that you will be the same all the time! :P
i just can't bear this girl. she doesn't know anything. gordon brown is using her for his own sake. he doesn't care about education.
Oh so Brown actually figured out the names of the other 2 girls. But the day is still Malala Day. With all due respect to Malala, I don't think she deserves a day named after her. Considering all the girls who actually died. No, they'd do well to actually appear on the news. And she's being used by the civilized world to show us as backward while they are also facing mass shootings of children in elementary schools.
Express tribune , you and your ever double standard moderation ....
oh please!!! -_-
Hats off to Malala for raising voice for girls education.