Malala Yousafzai, Edward Snowden Nominated for EU's Sakharov Prize

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teen shot by the Taliban for championing girls' education, and US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden have been nominated for the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on 17 September 2013.

European Parliament also named the Standing Man group, activists behind the Taksim Square protests in Istanbul in June 2013.

The other nominees are jailed Ethiopian journalist Reeyot Alemu and Eskinder Nega, Belarus political prisoners Ales Belyatsky, Eduard Lobau and Mykola Statkevich, and jailed former Russian oligarch and Putin foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky and CNN Freedom Project, a global media campaign to raise awareness on human trafficking.

In 2012 the award went to detained Iranians, lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and film maker Jafar Panahi, to honour those standing up for a better Iran.

Past winners of the Sakharov Prize include South African anti apartheid hero Nelson Mandela and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

About The Sakharov Prize

The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is awarded each year by the European Parliament. The prize was set up in 1988 to honour individuals or organisations for their efforts on behalf of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Parliament awards the human rights prize, at a formal sitting held in Strasbourg on or around 10 December, the day on which the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948.