Hector Pieterson
Hector Pieterson

Hector Pieterson received The World's Children's Honorary Award 2000, posthumously.

During the apartheid regime in South Africa, many black children in South Africa were imprisoned, tortured and killed because they protested against being treated badly only because they were black.

The day Hector was shot, 16 June 1976, 10,000 pupils had gathered to demonstrate in Soweto. Hector and the other young people has just come together peacefully when the police started using teargas against them. The children threw stones back at them. Then the police shot directly into the group of children and Hector was the first who died that day. Today, 16 June is designated National Youth Day in South Africa — when South Africans honour young people and bring attention to their needs.

Hector and the other Honorary Laureate awarded posthumously in 2000, Anne Frank, who was murdered at 15 by the Nazi regime during World War II, represent the billions of children who had their rights violated during the 20th century.

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