This year’s International Children’s Peace Prize goes to the Indian brothers Vihaan (17) and Nav (14) Agarwal. They were presented with the prize in the Ridderzaal in The Hague by children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. A scholarship is associated with the Children’s Peace Prize.
The brothers live in New Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world. Because of all the waste and air pollution – Vihaan suffers from asthma – they decided to do something about it. The brothers went to collect and separate waste themselves. It started with the waste of fifteen households. This has now been extended to waste from thousands of homes, schools and offices. The two give presentations at schools about the effects of pollution and they plant trees to improve air quality.
The Children’s Peace Prize is an initiative of the children’s rights organization KidsRights. The ceremony was attended by, among others, outgoing Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra and Benyam Mezmur of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
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