United Nations in New York to Host Human Rights Summit

With this year’s motto “Human Rights: Learn it. Embrace it. Live it,” the International Human Rights Summit 2016 will bring together youth from 50 countries in the name of making human rights a fact.

United Nations headquarters in New York will host the 13th annual International Human Rights Summit of Youth for Human Rights International August 25-27. A record 50 countries will be represented by youth delegates.

More than 160 young movers and shakers whose human rights activism and advocacy has made a difference in their countries applied to Youth for Human Rights International to represent their nations as delegates to the summit—an all-time high. Fifty have been selected to attend.

U.N. ambassadors, diplomats, public officials and representatives of nongovernmental organizations from around the world will brief the young human rights advocates on the first day of the summit. Youth delegates will present the results of their human rights advocacy to those attending at U.N. Headquarters. And there will also be the presentation of the annual Human Rights Hero Awards.

The delegates will forge partnerships and friendships with like-minded individuals, organizations and fellow advocates from across the globe.

“A population ignorant of their rights cannot demand or defend them,” says United for Human Rights International Coordinator Ruslan Khusainov. “Yet few in the world today know even two or three of their 30 rights as expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) is the youth component of United for Human Rights. YHRI is a global nonprofit organization founded in 2001 in Los Angeles, with over 100 chapters around the world. Their award-winning educational materials are translated into 27 languages, bringing the message of human rights to 195 nations.

The Human Rights Office of the Church of Scientology International is proud to co-sponsor the 13th annual International Human Rights Summit.