Engaged Youth Speak Out for Human Rights Education

Young volunteers from the Toronto chapter of Youth for Human Rights bring their message to Toronto’s Youth Day Festival.

With a passion for improving human rights in their province, Toronto Youth for Human Rights (YHR) volunteers raised awareness of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at Toronto’s 11th Annual Youth Day Festival.

After Youth for Human Rights volunteers joined in the opening parade, members took the stage at Yonge-Dundas Square in the heart of Toronto to perform a skit that brought The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) to life. The presentation stressed four of the 30 rights enshrined in the UDHR: The right to education, the right to food and shelter, the right to public assembly and the right to expression. The skit was a living example of Human Right #29—the responsibility to let others know their human rights.

Throughout the day, young volunteers encouraged people to “pick a human right” by spinning the “Human Rights Wheel of Fortune” at their booth. And they helped them learn the importance of the rights they selected by giving them copies of What Are Human Rights? The booklet is a youth-friendly presentation of each of the 30 articles of the UDHR.

YHR volunteers also moved through the crowd, collecting signatures on a petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to mandate human rights education throughout the province.

“Human rights are based on the principle of respect for the individual,” said Nicole Crellin, Youth for Human Rights Director for Toronto. “By mandating human rights education, we can bridge the gap between the current state of human rights on Earth and the ideals expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

The Church of Scientology and Scientologists support United for Human Rights and its program for young people, Youth for Human Rights. These groups engage in collaborative efforts with government agencies and nongovernmental organizations to bring about broad-scale awareness and implementation of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Central to Scientology beliefs is a conviction that all humankind is entitled to inalienable rights. Inspired by the words of Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that “Human rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream,” Scientologists support what has become one of the world’s largest nongovernmental human rights education initiatives.