Scientology Backs Youth Rights

Members of Los Angeles-area Scientology Churches launch petition drive for human rights education on International Youth Day

Members of Scientology Churches in greater Los Angeles held a petition drive at the Santa Monica Pier this month on International Youth Day, to raise public awareness of shocking human rights violations involving children, including child labor and sex trafficking.

The group gathered signatures on a petition calling for mandatory human rights education in U.S. schools, and for government and the private sector to work together to ensure that the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are implemented and become a living reality everywhere.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed by member nations of the United Nations on December 10, 1948, lists 30 rights that all human beings inherently possess.  Article 4 of the Universal Declaration reads: “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” Yet 60 years later:

• Nearly 250 million children in all parts of the world are exploited as child labor.
• Many of these young people are injured or exposed to hazardous materials.
• An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked internationally each year.
• Girls as young as 13 years of age, primarily from Asia and Eastern Europe, are trafficked as “mail-order brides.”
• In several Asian countries, young people constitute over 60 percent of sex workers.
• Some 10,000 children ages 6 to 14 are enslaved in brothels in Sri Lanka.
• The estimated 27 million enslaved persons worldwide is more than double the number deported in the 400-year transatlantic slave trade to the Americas.

“We have a responsibility to our youth,” said a Scientologist at the petition drive who has been a middle-school teacher for over 20 years. “If we do not take responsibility, then we will not have human rights. Education about this precious document is vital.”

The Church of Scientology was founded on the principles of human rights. In 1954, when the first Church of Scientology was formed, humanitarian and Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote the Creed of the Church of Scientology, the first point of which is “We of the Church believe that all men of whatever race, color, or creed were created with equal rights.”  Since then, the Church and its members have fought for the human rights of all people in many parts of the world.

For more information on the human rights campaign of the Church of Scientology visit the Scientology web site.