Malala Says Syrian Toddler's Drowning Shows World Has 'Lost Humanity'

Teenage Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai called on world leaders to do more about the Syrian crisis, saying that the drowning of a toddler showed the world had "lost humanity."

Appearing at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, the 18-year-old Pakistani, who was shot by the Taliban for defiantly going to school, said she was haunted by the picture of Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler whose body washed up on a Turkish beach earlier this month.

The shocking image of the toddler face down on the beach in newspapers and online drove home the tragedy of the Syrian migrant crisis to a stunned world audience.

"We lost humanity on that day when...nowhere a child is welcomed," she said. "It is important that people open their hearts and people open their lands to people who are now needing more support and who need the right to live." 

Malala appealed to world leaders to imagine their own children suffering the abuses meted out by the Islamic State militant group, which has taken over large parts of Syria and massacred and enslaved thousands.