Today 23 year old Canadian, Craig Kielburger, was presented with the
World Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child in Stockholm Sweden. Kieburger has worked to stop the exploitation of children as slaves, child laborers, child soldiers, and to improve the plight of street children throughout the world. As a 12 year old he read about a Pakistani boy who was murdered for voicing opposition to child labor in the carpet industry. That inspiration led to him building more than 425 schools in 23 countries.
Exactly eleven years ago this month I learned about Iqbal Masih and his battle to raise awareness about the plight of the world's children" said Kielburger. "It was Iqbal's example that first inspired me to join the struggle for children's rights and to found Free The Children. Today, what began as a group of twelve year olds dreaming of changing the world has grown into the world's largest network of children helping children through education.
More:
Free the Children has assisted more than 20,000 women develop income sources so their children can go to school instead of going to work. They have helped more than 500,000 people get acute health care.
As a child he convinced his parents to permit him to see the problem for himself. Then learned as much as he could about human rights before coming up with a plan that would encourage children to help other children through education.
After witnessing the exploitation of children in South Asia Kielburger wrote Free the Children to inspire students to take action.
Kielburger has encountered difficulties in promoting human rights for children. He expected resistance from the governments and industries exploiting children. But he also had to contend with conservative Canadian "Establishment Man" Conrad Black. Black's now defunct magazine "Saturday Night" published "The World's Most Powerful 13 Year Old", an article that implied Craig was a flim-flam artist and fraud who was naively being exploited by his ambitious teacher parents and third world labor activists.
At the time Nike and other companies were being criticized because their contractors were paying pennies to children to sew soccer balls and apparel. Sweatshops: Global Exchange Even management guru Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence) seemed to embrace globalism as opportunity for the sweatshop employed. But it was before the neo-con Ontario government of Mike Harris gutted the education system. So the high schooler took on Canada's litigious publishing baron, owner of more than 100 newspapers, and sued for defamation. Three years later Black's crony and editor, Ken Whyte, paid Kielburger nearly $350,000 in an out of court settlement. The author of the smear, Isabel Vincent, went on to work at another Black publication, The National Post, before experiencing a conversion of sorts. Her most recent book is about the exploitation of Jewish women as sex slaves.
Conrad Black, born into wealth, established himself as a high school cheat by selling examinations to fellow students at prestigious Upper Canada College. More recently he's come to the attention of the world in Chicago: on an eight count indictment for fraud. In the words of Kossak hero and federal prosecutor Patrick FitzGerald
The indictment charges that the insiders at Hollinger made it their job to steal and conceal...
More than $34 million is missing from the media empire.
Black purchased a title in Britain and enjoys the trappings of a British "Lord". He has promoted many conservative and neo-conservative causes in Canada, the United States and Great Britain. He appears to be a person who couldn't care less about the street beggars and hinders those who would help others less well off. He's promoted wingnuts of every description and is currently married to one, journalist Barbara Amiel. Charles Dickens might find this ermine trimmed, crimson robed blowhard an excellent character for a novel, perhaps redeemed while wearing beltless orange overalls. Note to Richard Perle and the PNAC: use your powers for good, not evil.
More recently Craig Kielburger and his brother Marc have written Take Action! A Guide to Active Citizenship and Take More Action (with Deepa Shankaran) to promote more active global citizenship and ethical leadership.
Their latest book is Me to We: Turning Self-Help on Its Head
Craig Kielburger has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times. Not bad for a 23 year old! Congratulations!