Youth For Human Rights International - Activities and Events

Activities and Events

YHRI distributes materials related to its interpretation of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and YHRI programs, to schoolchildren in a variety of developed nations, such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic. YHRI is also active in Germany. In Belgium, it handed out a prize, and also held an awards ceremony in Bulgaria for the same prize. YHRI awarded one prize to a Chinese actress, who promoted the group's views on her web site, and another to a young Israeli Scientologist who screened the film, UNITED, and distributed YHRI materials in his school. It held a conference in Zurich. It discussed plans to lecture and distribute its materials to schoolchildren in Ghana and Liberia. It advocated lower school fees in Uganda, and held a peace rally in Nigeria. In South Africa, Mary Shuttleworth's country of origin, it is pushing for a "human rights month." The organization's work is supported by the actor and Scientologist Tom Cruise and cooperates with human rights organizations, such as local chapters of Amnesty International. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, neither Amnesty in Berlin nor Amnesty International headquarters in London had knowledge of any such collaboration.

In 2005, Youth for Human Rights International organized a conference at a Los Angeles High School. Stephen Strachan, principal of Jordan High School, said that although he knew some of the organizers were Scientologists, he did not know of YHRI's relationship to the church until the Church of Scientology was listed on publicity materials as a co-sponsor. After learning of the connection, an agreement was negotiated to remove any mention of the Church of Scientology from literature, and letters were sent to parents saying students would need permission to attend the event.

In 2007, YHRI led a pilot human rights course in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, at which it distributed L. Ron Hubbard's tract "The Way to Happiness" to students ranging from 12 to 17 years old, and taught them Scientology jargon like the tone scale, while trying to enroll them in Drug Free Marshalls, a Scientology organization like Narconon. An official in the provincial government said he hoped to bring it to the province's 4.4 million children.