80-Day Human Rights Education World Tour Completes
UNICEF reports that 40 million children below the age of 15 suffer from abuse and neglect, while the USA National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse cites 3 million new reports of child abuse or neglect every year.
In light of such statistics on human rights abuses of children, it is fitting that the United Nations declared 2010 as the International Year of Youth. Accordingly, in answer to the widespread human rights abuses of young people, Dr. Mary Shuttleworth of Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) recently completed her seventh annual World Tour to five continents in eighty days. The purpose of the tour is educational and focuses on promoting the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights to tens of thousands of children and officials.
According to UNICEF, 1.2 million children are trafficked across international borders annually. Sold as commodities, these children are forced into inhumane labor, denied basic education and robbed of their childhoods. Youth who do not know their rights are vulnerable and easy prey for ill-intentioned individuals, which is why YHRI focuses on education.
“When the United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Youth, I knew that our reach in terms of children taught about their human rights had to be greater than ever,” Dr. Shuttleworth said. The tour reached Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Ecuador, Brazil, South Africa, Swaziland, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, Italy, Greece, Taiwan, Japan, Hawaii and Los Angeles.
The YHRI World Tour 2010 reached tens of thousands of students as well as elected officials, judiciary, law enforcement, educators, community and religious leaders, with media promoting human rights education to millions more.