President Obama will meet Tuesday with a fellow Nobel Peace Prize recipient: Indian child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi.
Satyarthi was awarded the prize in 2014, alongside Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, for his work campaigning against child labor. He’s led efforts to end the use of child workers at carpet factories and in diamond mines, prompting death threats.
{mosads}In a statement last October, Obama praised Satyarthi for reminding “us of our shared responsibility to end the exploitation of others, especially the most vulnerable among us.”
“The true measure of Kailash’s efforts is not a single prize he has been awarded, but the tens of thousands of people who today live with freedom and dignity thanks to his efforts,” the president said.
Obama and his family previously met with Yousafzai in the Oval Office, during which the teen, who was targeted for assassination because of her education advocacy work, urged Obama to end drone strikes in her home country.
“I thanked President Obama for the United States’ work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees,” Yousafzai said in a statement. “I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact.”
Obama is expected to speak to the media following the meeting with Satyarthi.
Later Tuesday, the president will head to Saudi Arabia to pay his respects after the death of King Abdullah.