Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi receives Honorary Doctor of Yerevan State University title
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YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Nobel Peace Prize recipient Kailash Satyarthi has been bestowed the title of Honorary Doctor of Yerevan State University.
The ceremony took place at the Yerevan State University during a seminar titled Social Work: Devotion and Cooperation dedicated to the Social Worker Day.
In 2014, Indian social reformer Satyarthi was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Malala Yousafzai, "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education." He is the founder of multiple social activist organizations, including Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Global March Against Child Labour, Global Campaign for Education, Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation, and Bal Ashram Trust.
As a social worker, Satyarthi undertook special campaigns in India and other countries and freed over 100,000 children from slavery, forced labor, domestic violence and other grave situations.
Yerevan State University (YSU) Rector Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, highlighting the role of social workers, said, “The role of social workers in developed countries is invaluable because their work is aimed at identifying the needs of people and ensuring social welfare. I hope that the role of social workers will further increase in our society too.”
He highlighted the Social Work and Social Technologies Chair of the Faculty of Sociology of the Yerevan State University.
Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan, speaking about the important role of social workers for the government, stated, “All our post-war relief programs wouldn’t be successful if not for the institution of social workers, and the simultaneous development and strengthening of this institution in communities and NGOs. Upon reading the biographies of social workers we see that most of them are graduates of the Yerevan State University.”
Mkrtchyan said that virtually all countries, including Armenia, have ratified the UN 1999 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour), which was greatly conditioned by Satyarthi’s campaigns in over 100 countries around the world.
Satyarthi said it is his first visit to Armenia and described receiving the title as a great welcome in both the YSU and generally in Armenia. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate said that Armenia and India have millennia-old collegial relations.
He lauded the Chair of Social Work and Social Technologies of the YSU for contributing to ensuring social welfare in Armenia. “It is highly valuable that the chair has implemented capacity development programs, conducted studies among persons with disabilities, and issues pertaining to children’s development and rights. This chair has given over 1000 social workers,” he said.