Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India—advocates for children’s rights—will share this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Yousafzai’s fight for girls’ education gained international attention after she was shot by the Taliban for daring to go to school. She has advocated that all girls should be able to do the same.

Yousufzai’s father Ziauddin told The Associated Press that winning the Nobel Prize will “boost the courage of Malala and enhance her capability to work for the cause of girls’ education.” At 17, she is the youngest winner in the history of the prize.

Satyarthi, 60, is an advocate for ending child slavery and has lead thousands of child slaves to freedom.

“Child slavery is a crime against humanity,” Satyarthi told the AP. “Humanity itself is at stake here. A lot of work still remains but I will see the end of child labor in my lifetime. If any child is a child slave in any part of the world, it is a blot on humanity. It is a disgrace.”

Fox News notes that the Nobel Prize committee was careful to choose both citizens of India and Pakistan, a Muslim and a Hindu, and a man and a woman to promote unity at a time “when India-Pakistan relations are under stress.”

The founder of the award, Alfred Nobel, said that the prize should be awarded to a living man or woman who has “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

President Obama is the most notable American to the win the award in recent years. However, according to a poll released this week, 55% of Americans think he does not deserve the prize he received in 2009.

The winners of this year’s prize will be presented their award and $1.1 million prize at a ceremony in Norway on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.