Seventeen-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai said she was “honoured” to be the first Pakistani and the youngest person to be given the award and dedicated the award to the “voiceless”.

“This award is for all those children who are voiceless, whose voices need to be heard,” she said at a press conference in Birmingham.

She also invited the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers to the prize-giving ceremony which she will share with fellow winner Kailash Satyarthi of India.

“I myself requested that honourable prime minister Narendra Modi and honourable prime minister Nawaz Sharif both join us,” she said, referring to a conversation she had with Satyarthi.