Recognising the virtuous

By The Data Team

The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize

MALALA YOUSAFZAI will today become the 16th woman (and, at 17, the youngest person) to receive the Nobel peace prize. She was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012 while returning from school, and now runs a trust that promotes education for girls. She shares the prize with Kailash Satyarthi, a Hindu man who campaigns against child slavery in India, leading a group called Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement). Pakistani and Indian respectively, they represent a welcome trend to honour people other than European and North American men. They also signal a reversal of the recent drift towards celebrating institutions, rather than people. The award committee may hope that this jointly awarded prize will improve relations between India and Pakistan, but neither recipient has made a point of looking at relations between the rival nuclear-armed countries. Others will have to work on bilateral peace.