Youth for Human Rights 2006 World Tour Arrives "Down Under"

In Sydney, Australia, the 26th stop of their 2006 World Tour, Youth for Human Rights International focused on the urgency of full implementation of the right to education.

With UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) reporting that "860 million adults are illiterate, over 100 million children have no access to school, and countless children, youth and adults who attend school or other education programs fall short of the required level to be considered literate in today’s complex world" the right to education, as guaranteed by Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has even more relevance today than when it was adopted in 1948. Without this right, so many others, such as the rights to work and security become unobtainable.

But the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is written in legal terms — not something an 8-year-old child will be able to read and understand. So for the past five years Youth for Human Rights has been carrying out an international human rights education campaign to make the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights understandable to everyone.

With kids getting most of their information from TV and the Internet today, Youth for Human Rights International realized that the best way to get these concepts across would be through the medium of video. In partnership with the Church of Scientology International, they have created 30 short, imaginative, hard-hitting films that convey the essence of each of the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in ways that bring each right vividly to life for youth and adults alike. These have been produced as public service announcements to be aired on television and watched online with the end of making every person on Earth aware of his or her rights and responsibilities.

The PSA on the right to education shows what happens when a precocious child in an affluent American city, who takes education as an annoying fact of life, realizes that other girls her own age have no opportunity to attend school at all.

In meetings with the Commissioner for Human Rights, and legislators in Sydney, the President of Youth for Human Rights International presented the human rights curriculum and educational materials the group has produced, to work out how these can be put into broad use to increase awareness and implementation of human rights on a broad scale.