Year 2008 in Review

December 10, 2008

Youth for Human Rights International
Year 2008 in Review

This has been a year of unprecedented expansion! As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, our messages of human rights are reaching people of all walks of life, all continents and the TV stations are now promoting our videos to hundreds of millions around the world.

The purpose of Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) is to teach youth about human rights, specifically the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and inspire them to become valuable advocates for tolerance and peace.

Through the tireless efforts of our thousands of dedicated volunteers around the world, human rights education has permeated society at a new level.

• Students in Sierra Leone, Ghana and Liberia participated in intensive human rights education and gained the skills needed to research, document, teach and promote human rights to their peers, communities and leaders.

• YHRI-Burundi realized that children who do not know their rights are vulnerable and took the message of human rights to schools, religious groups, orphanages and even people who live in the furthest remote areas.

• YHRI-India, in collaboration with the Safepoint Foundation, taught human rights to millions of people specifically focusing on the person’s right to safe health care by raising awareness about the dangers of re-using syringes.

• YHRI-Bangladesh got started this year and is learning how to expand their team.

• YHRI-Congo continued to develop the plans for their Human Rights Community Center.

• YHRI-South Africa inspired thousands of youth to learn about their human rights and their responsibilities.

• Art competitions and celebrity awards celebrations of chapters such as YHRI-UK and YHRI-Australia inspired youth and the results truly depicted their understanding of human rights vividly.

• YHRI-Morocco mailed postcards and painted murals.

• YHRI-Uganda held human rights concerts and workshops.

• Artists and celebrities in Venezuela took the lead and YHRI-Venezuela promoted to audiences in shopping malls, huge concerts and TV reaching hundreds of thousands of fans throughout Venezuela and beyond her borders and took rap to a new horizon as human rights lessons were taught.

• YHRI-Mexico brought artists on board bringing human rights messages into the limelight.

• YHRI-Taiwan literally promoted human rights education on two wheels. Yes, they cycled around the island promoting to dignitaries, leaders, educators as well as people along the way - young and old alike!

• YHRI-UK was fast as the team raced around the track for human rights promoting the message of human rights locally and nationwide in the media. Rumor has it that they are taking their “Racing 4 Human Rights™” message to an international level next year!

• In the US, Major League Soccer (MLS) kicked human rights education to a new high level by promoting the YHRI PSAs endorsed by the MLS professional players to thousands, during halftime as well as on national TV.

• In California our YHRI youth kicked off a new idea with their “Kick Discrimination™” campaign.

• YHRI-Denmark kicked off their soccer initiative including players from many countries joining in the fun.

• Switzerland took human rights education to a new height with their soccer balls depicting the 30 articles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The list continues with human rights being taught in Fiji and surrounding islands depicting local images in their human rights videos. In honor of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, YHRI groups in countries around the globe including Holland, Indonesia, Italy, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Russia, Sweden and the USA, our YHRI volunteers spread the message of human rights to hundreds of thousands of youth.

The YHRI World Tour 2008 circled the globe to Haiti, Venezuela, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Pakistan and Taiwan. The media followed and shared stories of visits with dignitaries, officials, community leaders, schools, youth groups and the local people. New friends were made and collaborations formed to take human rights education to a new level.

The YHRI International Human Rights Summit 2008 at the United Nations headquarters in New York was an outstanding success with 27 youth delegates from around the world walking side-by-side to promote human rights for all. Dignitaries, religious and community leaders addressed the delegation and audience from such countries as Austria, Bangladesh, Canada, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, Guyana, Hungary, Italy, Japan, and Kazakhstan, Liberia, Nigeria, as well as US communities from countries such as the Congo, Laos and Vietnam, urged the implementation of human rights education by all nations.

The YHRI videos depicting the UDHR continue to teach human rights on all continents. The videos aired on TV stations including CNN reaching millions, Dynasy TV which airs from New York to China, ABS-CBN in Malaysia, Zenit TV in Hungary, TV Mitel in Czech Republic, Europa 7 in Italy, Tele Mexiquense in Mexico, Chanel 51 Nova TV in Colombia, HBO Pakistan and many more, reaching hundreds of thousands of people around the world. YHRI-Italy promoted the YHRI videos on National TV Station Odeon TV. Someone uploaded the video of the TV Station and placed the PSA’s on YouTube, sending them far and wide still carrying the Odeon TV station logo. Besides the media carrying our YHRI message of human rights across the airwaves, the taxi drivers, theatres, shopping malls, sports arenas and electronic billboards shared our YHRI videos with hundreds of thousands more.

Our UNITED Human Rights Handbook reached students on all continents. Small youth groups as well as educators in large schools, with thousands of students, used the easy lessons from the handbook to teach the students about their human rights and their responsibilities.

As a non-profit organization we rely on your memberships, generous donations and sponsorships in addition to the work of our dedicated volunteers who have helped across the globe. Without you we could not have achieved these stellar results. Special acknowledgement goes to the Human Rights Department of the Church of Scientology International for their outstanding support. I want to acknowledge the Youth for Human Rights International Board Members as well as our Advisory Board Members, Mayor Almog Burstein, Dr. Pouran Ameli, Professor Ian Hall, Reverend McKinney, Sheriff Leroy Baca, Sheeraz Hasan and Irving Sarnoff. We also remember the outstanding contributions of the late Hans Janitschek. Through your dedication and contributions we have managed to expand our organization and our ability to reach hundreds of millions of youth.

Join in the global effort to teach human rights to the youth. Go to our website, http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/ or visit http://www.humanrights.com/. Your help is very much needed and appreciated.

As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we launch into a new decade; a decade where human rights education should be implemented in every educational institution. A decade where millions more children should be empowered to know that they have human rights and know too that they have the responsibility to protect their own human rights and those of their peers. A decade of contemplating and debating, learning and teaching, drawing and writing, playing, singing, dancing and celebrating, “Human Rights!”

Wishing you a wonderful and productive 2009!

With kind regards,

Mary Shuttleworth, EdD
President

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