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Youth teach public about human rights
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
| Article published on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 |
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| Photo by ALEXANDRA CALDWELL |
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| Front row, Sean Dobbe, left, 17, of Belleair; and Dustin McGahee, 18, of Clearwater. Middle row, from left, Winston Seymour, 12, of Clearwater; Sky Kintzel, 14, of Chicago; and Nicole Schneider, 15, of Clearwater. Back row, from left, Jonathan Schneider, 17, of Clearwater; Sirio Balmelli, 21, of Italy; and Valentina Lorenzini, 14, of Clearwater. All are members of Youth for Human Rights. Here they display the DVD, “Youth for Human Rights” that illustrates each of the 30 rights in the United Declaration of Human Rights. Jonathan, and Nicole recently moved to Clearwater from Ticeino, Switzerland. Balmetti is currently a student at St. Petersburg College. |
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CLEARWATER – Area youth have joined with youth around the world to bring awareness to children and adults about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Dustin McGahee, 18, of Clearwater, is president of Youth for Human Rights of Tampa Bay, which recently collected 2,500 signatures to petition Gov. Charlie Crist to teach the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in all Florida schools.
The declaration was written by Eleanor Roosevelt and the United Nations in 1948 and consists of 30 human rights enforced by international law. Some of the rights include the right to life, the right to a trial, the freedom to move, the right to privacy, the right to a nationality, the right to marriage, and the rights of no discrimination, no slavery, no torture, no unfair detainment. Youth for Human Rights International has picked up this cause.
“People need to know about human rights because if no one knows about them and no one demands them, then things kind of get out of control,” McGahee said.
One of the original intentions of the declaration was to teach it in schools, McGahee said, but 60 years later, that still has not happened.
The group speaks at schools and other venues about human rights and shows a 28-minute DVD that illustrates each of the 30 human rights.
“It helps move from an idealistic dream to more of a reality,” said Sean Dobbe, 17, of Belleair. Dobbe is another member of Youth for Human Rights of Tampa Bay.
Youth for Human Rights also recently sponsored an entire refugee camp in Africa by buying 109 mosquito nets. Malaria is the number one killer of children in African refugee camps, so the nets help protect them from the disease-carrying mosquitoes at night, which is when most mosquitoes bite, McGahee said.
Youth for Human Rights of Tampa Bay has teamed up with other Youth for Human Rights International members, bringing 14-year-old Sky Kintzel of Chicago in to direct the play, Annie Jr., with all the proceeds benefiting Youth for Human Rights. The play is by kids, for kids, and the group will show the human rights DVD before the show to help bring awareness about human rights.
Some of the members of Youth for Human Rights take what they’ve learned through the group into their personal lives as well. Dobbe is working on his Boy Scout’s Eagle Scout rank, and for his service project, he is going to help renovate the American Indian burial mound and museum in Philippe Park in Safety Harbor. Dobbe realized that a lot of his project relates to human rights, such as the freedom of thought and religion, the freedom of expression, and no discrimination. He intends to build a fence and shell path around the mound, build posts in the different directions so people can make offerings and to make the displays more inclusive toward all American Indians. Right now there are things that can be deemed offensive, such as a cartoon Indian on one of the signs, he said.
Youth for Human Rights impacts young people like Dobbe all around the world. Jonathan Schneider, 17, and his sister, Nicole, 15, of Ticeino, Switzerland, are visiting Clearwater for the summer and have joined up with the local chapter of the organization. Jonathan said word about the United Declaration of Human Rights is spreading in Europe because of kids in the organization.
Sirio Balmelli of Italy agreed.
Balmelli, 21, attends St. Petersburg College and has been involved in Youth for Human Rights since it was still forming because his mother is friends with Taron Lexton, the creator of the accompanying human rights DVD. Balmelli said these rights really hit home when he volunteered for two months in India.
“Here in the west, they’re taken for granted,” Balmelli said. “We’re like, oh yeah, there are human rights, but people tend to skip over the fact that human rights are kind of what differentiates the east from the west. ... If you go east, it dawns on you a bit that people think this is the way it is and God willed it to be this way and this is my fate and there’s nothing I can do about it. But human rights instills that idea that there is something you can do about it. You are a person, you are unique, you have human rights and it gives rise to this concept of individualism that is sort of lost when you’re in between a billion and a half people.”
All the students agreed that the best way to bring human rights to the world is to let people know about them and that they have the right to demand them.
For McGahee, his short-term goal is to get human rights taught in all Florida schools as a part of the curriculum. Jonathan seeks an even larger goal.
“There are people doing drugs because there are no human rights,” Jonathan said. “There’s slavery because there’s no human rights. There’s racism because there’s no human rights. My goal would be to bring human rights to everyone everywhere so all these bad things could stop. The roots of all these problems are because they don’t have human rights.”
The play, Annie Jr. is Saturday, Aug. 8, 6 p.m. at the Francis Wilson Playhouse Theatre, 302 Seminole St., Clearwater. Cost is $40 per ticket. Call 512-8889 for tickets.
Youth for Human Rights is sponsored by the Human Rights Office of the Church of Scientology International.
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Article published on Wednesday, July 15, 2009
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