CLEARWATER UNITED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER

The United for Human Rights Center in downtown Clearwater is dedicated to taking what is already the most embracive and fundamental human rights initiative on Earth and establishing a beachhead in a state that finds itself confronting a trafficking crisis.

The human rights tragedies in Florida total an estimated 40,000 people who are trafficked through Florida each year, the majority for forced prostitution. The state is the third busiest hub for sex trafficking in the United States, with the Tampa Bay Area among the most active.

Given the immense scope of the problem, the Church-sponsored United for Human Rights is in the vanguard of human rights education and information. It is the world’s largest nongovernmental human rights education campaign, active in 192 countries and partnering with 1,500 groups and organizations. Its purpose: To raise awareness and implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its 30 articles.

In Taiwan, human rights presentations to 59,000 students in 435 schools resulted in demonstrable change among students, leading to the Minister of Education officially appointing the program’s leader to the national Human Rights Education Council.
Principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are now enshrined in the Mexican National Constitution, with Youth for Human Rights a key contributor to the countrywide campaign leading to the enactment.
Youth for Human Rights annual summits at the United Nations in New York and Geneva have developed young advocates now leading hundreds of chapters in 60 nations.

Clearwater’s United for Human Rights Center, located on the city’s main thoroughfare of Fort Harrison Avenue, stands as a headquarters honoring the concept of human rights and as an unwavering commitment to broad-scale human rights education throughout the Greater Tampa Bay Area.

The United for Human Rights center features an information area devoted to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the award-winning audiovisual materials of the organization that bring to life all 30 of the Declaration’s articles through public service announcements and informational documentaries.

Additionally, the center houses a seminar room for workshops and lectures and administrative facilities for volunteers and civic groups to collaborate on local human rights initiatives.

Educators may also obtain copies of the Bringing Human Rights to Life Education Package for high school and college-level instruction and the Youth for Human Rights Education Package for elementary and middle school students.

United for Human Rights is a key element of a complex of six separate buildings dedicated to Church-sponsored programs serving the Clearwater area—a vibrant symbol of community collaboration.

United for Human Rights and its programs are based on principles expressed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, who in 1969 observed, “It is vital that all thinking men urge upon their governments sweeping reforms in the field of human rights.”

For nearly five decades, Scientologists have worked to overcome any and all obstacles to champion those inalienable rights. The Church sponsors one of the world’s broadest human rights education and public information campaigns under the banner of United for Human Rights.

In fact, the Church of Scientology helped educate more than 50,000 people on their human rights in the Clearwater and Tampa areas during the past year alone. United for Human Rights Clearwater consistently works with some 60 civil and human rights groups to accomplish that goal.