United for Human Rights Global Conference: Learn—Inspire—Act.

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, US, September 23, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- What will it take to create a world without violence and armed conflict?

Addressing this question head on, United for Human Rights held an online global conference in celebration of International Peace Day with leading humanitarians and activists from around the world and over 1,000 participants in the conference from over 100 countries.

• Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Oscar Arias Sánchez, who served two terms as Costa Rica’s president, spoke from experience saying, “Peace needs a tireless effort. Peace has to be constructed every day. Peace needs every one of us.”

• The African Union’s Ambassador Salah S. Hammad began by saying “Thanking United for Human Rights and Youth for Human Rights International for bringing us together to celebrate this important occasion – International Peace Day.” He described the role youth played in silencing guns in the continent of 1.2 billion and noted that the majority of the population in Africa is young.

• Joining the list of dignitaries speaking was Joy Ngoma, granddaughter of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu. She spoke emotionally saying, “Peace is such a close subject to me. It almost feels like home.” She further concluded, “I realized we are all invaded by fear because of this virus – COVID 19. … I realized it has taught us as humans, we need to lean on each other. We need to take care of one another.”

• Sari Lehtiranta, Deputy Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations, spoke from the perspective of a diplomat working at the UN Office in Geneva. She encouraged youth to work on peace and work within the diplomatic process to encourage peace.

• Troy Wolfe, Senior Director for Partnerships and Special Initiatives of the United Nations Foundation/United Nations Association of the United States of America. Mr. Wolfe gave hands-on solutions, backed by years of experience in shaping global peace.

• Dr. Mary Shuttleworth, Founder of Youth for Human Rights International and a long-time educator, addressed education and empowering youth through human rights training. Dr. Shuttleworth gave highlights of her visits to 93 countries promoting human rights and peace over the last 20 years. She said that in every country she found most people want peace and human rights and are willing to work for it, if they just have the tools and the knowledge to do so.

• The Executive Director of United for Human Rights, Ruslan Khusainov, stressed the importance of human rights education, especially for youth.

In order to help people to uphold human rights locally in their countries, United for Human Rights has developed and made available online human rights tools, free of charge, in 17 languages.

The Shaping Peace Together Global Online Conference is available to view on Facebook Live, as well as other platforms, and was simultaneously translated into Spanish and French. Watch the event here.

About Youth for Human Rights, the youth component of United for Human Rights:

Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to teach youth about human rights, specifically the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to inspire them to become valuable advocates for tolerance and peace. YHRI advocates for human rights both in the classroom and in nontraditional educational settings such as through art series, concerts and other interactive community events, including regional and international human rights summits which bring youth together from across whole sectors of the world. Their most recent campaign has included #KnowYour30 with the deliberate purpose of increasing awareness of the 30 human rights every person has - and how they are a part of everyday life. To learn more about human rights go to https://www.youthforhumanrights.org. For a documentary on Youth for Human Rights and its founder, go to https://www.scientology.tv/series/voices-for-humanity/mary-shuttleworth.html.

Beth Akiyama
United for Human Rights
+1 202-667-6404
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